Orval E. Faubus, the former Arkansas governor who defied federal orders to desegregate Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, died Wednesday at age 84.
The cause of death was not known, but Faubus had suffered from spinal cancer.A onetime hobo, Faubus rose from the poverty of an Ozark Mountain hamlet named Greasy Creek to the state's highest office.
On Sept. 2, 1957, he ordered the National Guard to prevent black students from entering Little Rock's Central High despite a federal court order. Nine black youths were turned away the next day.
To the last, Faubus insisted he acted only to avoid violence.
"I didn't know whether it would make me a hero or a goat," he recalled.
Faubus' interference forced the nation's first use of federal troops for school desegregation and demonstrated the degree of federal resolve behind the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision.
On Sept. 20, a federal judge ordered him to stop interfering. Three days later, the nine blacks entered Central High through a side door, breaking the color line while Little Rock police struggled with rioters at barricades holding back a crowd of 1,000 whites. The black pupils were removed from school for their safety.
President Eisenhower, who had federalized the guard to dissolve Faubus' control over it, then sent 1,200 paratroopers to protect the Little Rock Nine in their re-entry to the school.