FAUBUS AND SEGREGATION: AN ANALYSIS OF ARKANSAS VOTING.

Eight months after his much publicized defense of Little Rock school segregation, Orval Faubus won his most convincing primary nomination for the Governor of Arkansas. This paper analyzes this election in detail and notes differences between it and three previous Faubus primaries and a 1956 Arkansas vote on segregation. These differences suggest that the prosegregation areas responded differently to Faubus in 1958. More specifically, the less prosperous, more rural counties that favored segregation in 1956 responded most strongly for Faubus in 1958, other counties that favored segregation tended to increase their support of Faubus in 1958 but not as much. The "common man appeal" of Faubus demonstrated in earlier primaries probably made him more acceptable in the rustic regions. It appears, then, that a consideration of economics as well as segregation sentiment is necessary to understand fully the voting pattern of Faubus's fourth primary.