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Up until May 1959, no jazz composition recorded by had been as controversial or as politically charged as Fables of Faubus. The song, first recorded 50 years ago this month on , was meant to be a condemnation of Arkansas governor Orval Faubus. In 1957 Faubus had ordered the state's National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African-American teenagers. With the reissue of Mingus Ah Um by Sony Legacy yesterday (along with Mingus Dynasty), I am struck yet again by the boldness of Fables of Faubus' breathy, lumbering indignation. [Photo of Charles Mingus in 1959 by Lee Friedlander]

Along with Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite in 1958, Mingus' composition courageously raised the ante among jazz artists, insisting they become creative agitators for change rather than just concerned bystanders. Interestingly, Louis Armstrong played a role. I spoke to Nat Hentoff and Sue Mingus yesterday about the significance of Fables of Faubus and the Civil Rights Movement. More from them in a moment.

Contrary to most fans' impressions, Mingus wasn't a political protester, per se. He was first and foremost a composer who was vocal from the bandstand about all things unfair and unjust--from noisy ice in glasses to Jim Crow. As Mingus told Brian Priestley in Mingus: A Critical Biography:

"I just write tunes and put political titles on them. Fables of Faubus was different, though--I wrote that because I wanted to."

More than a year after Mingus Ah Um, Mingus recorded the Original Fables of Faubus on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid Records), this time with a brazen set of lyrics. The words were talk-sung by Mingus and shouted by drummer Dannie Richmond and other band members, who function as a Greek chorus ferociously condemning racism and racists.

Why the song's lyrics weren't recorded the first time around on Mingus Ah Um isn't clear. Most likely the omission came at the behest of Columbia executives, who at the time didn't want to overly inflame the label's Southern markets. Writes Gene Santoro in Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus:

"[The group recorded] Fables of Faubus, but Columbia, Mingus said, wouldn't let them record the lyrics."

When Mingus wrote the song in late 1957, the Little Rock standoff had been the most shocking and dramatic episode to take place in the Civil Rights Movement. The event marked the first time that Southern racism was exposed on network television, and the news story unfolded slowly in September 1957. The sight of armed National Guard soldiers preventing nine students from attending a public school and the federal government's slow reaction was harrowing. The month-long televised drama deeply affected jazz musicians and people throughout the country who had heard about unjust conditions in the South but had never seen them in action.

Ultimately, the Justice Department sought and was granted an injunction against Faubus' order, and the governor had to withdraw National Guard troops. But the move offered little protection for the students or assurance that the community wouldn't riot or bar them from the school. So on September 24th--20 days after the incident's start--President Eisenhower finally federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the army's 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock enforce integration and safeguard the African-American students.

To gain insight into Mingus' strident recording of Original Fables of Faubus in 1960, I spoke briefly yesterday with Nat Hentoff, who produced the Candid session:

"The Little Rock standoff in 1957 had been extraordinary. The Supreme Court's decision three years earlier [Brown v. Board of Education] had made integration possible. The decision was unanimous and had been signed individually by each justice. Never before had that happened. Little Rock was an attempt to put the decision to test.

"During the Little Rock standoff, President Eisenhower dragged his feet, which angered Louis Armstrong. Louis made uncharacteristically heated comments about Eisenhower during a newspaper interview that belied his cheery disposition. I'm sure his unrestrained public statement partly motivated Mingus to write Fables of Faubus. Louis simply said what many in the jazz community were thinking and feeling at the time.

"I remember the recording session. I think I sent out for sandwiches and that's about it [ laughs]. You didn't have to manage a Mingus session. The lyrics? They didn't seem controversial to me. They were as natural as sunlight.

"The one thing about [Candid owner] Archie Bleyer is I never knew what he thought about any of the recordings we made. He never interfered and he stood by his word. I had total freedom, and I approached the Mingus date with that frame of mind."

The comments Armstrong made to a newspaper reporter on September 17, 1957, two weeks into the Little Rock standoff, were widely reported at the time:

"It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country," Armstrong said. President Eisenhower, Armstrong charged, was "two faced," and had "no guts." For Governor Faubus, Armstrong used a hyphenated expletive that was unfit for print. So the reporter and Armstrong came up with a safer expression: "uneducated plow boy." The euphemism, the reporter recalled years later, was far more his than Mr. Armstrong's.

I also spoke yesterday to Sue Mingus, who met her husband in 1964:

"One of the first times I went to see Mingus in 1964, the group was playing Fables of Faubus at New York's Five Spot. Mingus and Dannie [Richmond] would exchange the song's lyrics, and they'd often change them from night to night. Every version was rousing.

"Mingus, as you know, was outspoken. He used the bandstand as a soapbox to communicate what was on his mind--about the ills of society, the inequities and the social injustice. He spoke out at all times, not just about people making noise in clubs during performances but also about political and social issues.

"This was a musical communication about his feelings, not to be confused with political protest. Mingus only wrote six or seven political compositions with lyrics, but he was not didactic. His purpose with his music wasn't to confront social injustice. He was too much of a composer for that. But he did vent on the bandstand vocally about anything he felt was wrong or unfair. Back then, that took courage."

Finally, what are we to make of the odd LP title Mingus Ah Um? According to Sue Mingus, it has nothing to do with the bassist's proclivity for minimalist responses. Instead, Sue said, "Mingus was treating his name like a Latin noun declension--Ming-us, ah um--with his own private spin. Latin entered his sphere of reference at some point, and he was always very Joycean in his manipulation of the language."

Like Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit in 1939, Mingus' Fables of Faubus must be viewed both as a masterful composition and a powerful folk expression that helped give voice to the Civil Rights Movement.

JazzWax tracks: The Sony Legacy reissue of Mingus Ah Um includes the original album, six alternate takes and bonus tracks, as well as Mingus Dynasty and bonus tracks. The two-CDrelease can be found The Original Fables of Faubus with lyrics can be found as a download at iTunes and Amazon off of Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus. You'll also find longer versions with lyrics at both places. It's fascinating to play several versions one after the other and compare the energy.

JazzWax lyrics. I've noticed that people in web chat rooms often request the call-and-response lyrics to Charles Mingus' Original Fables of Faubus. Here they are, courtesy of Brian Priestley's Mingus: A Critical Biography:

Oh Lord, don't let them shoot us Oh Lord, don't let them stab us Oh Lord, don't let them tar and feather us Oh Lord, no more swastikas! Oh Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan! Name me someone ridiculous, Dannie [Dannie:] Governor Faubus Why is he sick and ridiculous? [Dannie:] He won't permit integrated schools (Mingus: Then he's a fool) Boo! Nazi fascist supremacists/Boo Ku Klux Klan! Name me a handful that's ridiculous. Dannie Richmond? [Dannie:] Bilbo. Faubus. [Unintelligible]. Rockefeller. [Unintelligible]. Eisenhower. Why are they so sick and ridiculous? [Dannie:] Two, four, six, eight [All:] They brainwash and teach you hate!
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.

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Jazz news: Charles Mingus: Fables of Faubus

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Up until May 1959, no jazz composition recorded by had been as controversial or as politically charged as Fables of Faubus. The song, first recorded 50 years ago this month on , was meant to be a condemnation of Arkansas governor Orval Faubus.

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Nine high-achieving African-American students tried to attend classes at all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, following a Supreme Court finding that segregation was unconstitutional. Governor Orval Faubus, being sick and ridiculous, as the music reports, called out armed Arkansas National Guardsmen to keep these 15-year-old kids from entering the school building, while white men and women spat in the kids' faces.  President Eisenhower countered by sending in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. Once inside the school, the kids were attacked verbally or physically by white students throughout the year. Students attempted to set one girl on fire and splashed acid in the face of another, attempting to blind her. All nine not only survived, but thrived. Two became university professors, one became Deputy Assistant Director of the Interior in the administration of President Clinton, and another became Secretary of Labor in the administration of President Carter. 

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Nine high-achieving African-American students tried to attend classes at all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, following a Supreme Court finding that segregation was unconstitutional. Governor Orval Faubus, being sick and ridiculous, as the music reports, called out armed Arkansas National Guardsmen to keep these 15-year-old kids from entering the school building, while white men and women spat in the kids' faces.  President Eisenhower countered by sending in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. Once inside the school, the kids were attacked verbally or physically by white students throughout the year. Students attempted to set one girl on fire and splashed acid in the face of another, attempting to blind her. All nine not only survived, but thrived. Two became university professors, one became Deputy Assistant Director of the Interior in the administration of President Clinton, and another became Secretary of Labor in the administration of President Carter. 

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When the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate schools for whites and blacks were unconstitutional and inherently unequal, the slow and often violent dismantling of segregation in educational institutions began across the country.

Knowing that there would be defiance and resistance toward the Brown v. Board of Education decision, particularly in the South where Jim Crow prevailed, the Supreme Court refrained from setting a specific deadline for schools to begin the desegregation process.

But in 1955, in a subsequent ruling that addressed the lagging progress being made by states, the court demanded that integration happen "with all deliberate speed." The school board of Little Rock, Arkansas, voted to desegregate their high schools starting in 1957, which led to a crisis that catapulted the state's governor into a showdown with the president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

By 1957, Arkansas had already integrated several state universities and smaller school districts. But when nine black students decided to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, which would desegregate a large urban district, threats of violence and protests ensued.

Little Rock Nine Face Hostile Crowds

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

READ MORE: The Story Behind the Little Rock Nine 'Scream Image'
Days before the school year started, the governor of Arkansas Orval Faubus, a segregationist, announced on September 2, 1957, that he would order the state's National Guard to surround Central to prevent the black students from entering, under the guise of protecting them from mob violence. In response, Federal Judge Ronald Davies issued a ruling the very next day, mandating that integrated classes would proceed as court ordered.

But on September 4, when the black students, historically known as the Little Rock Nine, faced a vicious throng outside Central, they were denied entry by armed troops in the Arkansas National Guard. Images of the African American students being screamed at, heckled and spat on, made national and international news.

The intense stand-off continued over several weeks as the National Guard continued to surround the school in defiance of Judge Davies's ruling. To discuss a solution, Governor Faubus visited President Eisenhower at his retreat in Newport, Rhode Island. Eisenhower faced a complicated predicament: He believed in adhering to the Constitution, but he wasn't outwardly passionate about civil rights and didn't speak in support of the Brown ruling.

"He wasn't that enthusiastic about the Supreme Court's decision and equivocated in public," said John A. Kirk, a history professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and author of Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis. "He didn't put a strong backing to it."

Eisenhower and Faubus agreed that the Arkansas National Guard would remain at the school to maintain order, so the black students could attend.

When the governor returned to Arkansas, however, he removed the National Guard troops from Central and left security to the local police. As the Little Rock Nine made another attempt to enter on September 23, they had to use a side entrance because a belligerent mob of 1,000 had formed outside. When a riot erupted, the police had to evacuate the black students for their safety. The mayor of Little Rock, Woodrow Mann, called on the president to intervene.
READ MORE: Brown v. Board of Education: The First Step in the Desegregation of America's Schools
Eisenhower Felt Little Rock Compromised US Credibility Amid Cold War
LISTEN: Eisenhower Intervenes in Little Rock Crisis
The news incensed Eisenhower. "He was a military man and didn't want his orders undermined," said Kirk. "He felt Faubus had been insubordinate." The president was also concerned the riots compromised the credibility of the United States, as a leader of democracy and a nation of laws during the Cold War era.

On September 23, President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730, which put the Arkansas National Guard under federal authority, and sent 1,000 U.S. Army troops from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, to maintain order as Central High School desegregated.

"Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our nation," said Eisenhower, in a televised address he gave at the White House the day after he enforced his executive order. "Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts."

"Eisenhower was boxed into a corner and reached a point where he had to show the power of the federal government and chop off continued insurrection of southern segregationists," says Dolores Barclay, an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School and administrative manager of the Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights. "His decision was decidedly political-to maintain federal power-and to ensure that Brown was enforced."
READ MORE: What Led to Desegregation Busing-and Did It Work?
Arkansas National Guard Take Over Patrol

On September 25, 1957, the Little Rock Nine attended Central High for their first full day of classes, under the protection of the newly federalized Arkansas National Guard and the 101 Airborne Division, who steadily withdrew as a dwindling number of state soldiers took full control of security by December.

"It turned out to be a point of contention," said Kirk. "The NAACP felt the kids were being abandoned and wanted to make sure the soldiers had a presence in the school and looked out for the students and protected their safety."

From December until the end of the school year in May 1958, soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard patrolled the school, while the Little Rock Nine were regularly subjected to physical assaults, threats and slurs.

The following school term, in September 1958, Governor Faubus closed down Little Rock high schools for the year, to prevent black students from enrolling. But in August 1959, Little Rock high schools reopened integrated, after a federal court struck down the governor's school-closing law.

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Why Eisenhower Sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock After Brown v. Board

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When the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate schools for whites and blacks were unconstitutional and inherently unequal, the slow and often violent dismantling of segregation in educational institutions began across the country. Knowing that there would be defiance and resistance toward the Brown v.

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Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress
In September 1957 Arkansas Democratic Governor Orval E. Faubus became the national symbol of racial segregation when he used Arkansas National Guardsmen to block the enrollment of nine black students who had been ordered by a federal judge to desegregate Little Rock's Central High School. His action created a national crisis with President Dwight D. Eisenhower finally ordering federal troops to Little Rock to ensure the judge's order was obeyed, to protect the black students, and maintain order for the remainder of the school year. In the speech below Faubus defends his actions and calls for continued resistance to racial integration and what he calls an all-powerful, intrusive federal government.
Those who would integrate our schools at any price are still among us. They have seized upon the present situation to promote and foment concern and discontent, because of the temporary closing of the schools. They have spread wild rumors and attempted to organize demonstrations. These are the same people and the same forces who have all along been opposed to the majority will of the people of Little Rock and Arkansas....

Last year, I stated during the September crisis that I was not elected Governor of Arkansas to surrender all our rights as citizens to an all-powerful federal autocracy.... It is my responsibility, and it is my purpose and determination, to defend the constitutional rights of the people of Arkansas to the full extent of my ability....

I am fully aware of the deep concern of the parents for the continued proper education of their children, and I am fully aware of the inconvenience to the students in the interruption of the proper educational processes. To them, both parents and students, I express my sympathy and understanding.

To the students who are concerned, I say that in the years to follow, when you have come to realize the importance of maintaining our form of government, and the importance of preserving the great freedoms and privileges which we have known, you will be happy and proud to remember that you suffered inconvenience and personal sacrifice, and thereby made a worthwhile contribution to the maintenance of our dual system of government....

In this dual system of government, with its checks and balances, lies the strength of the United States of America....

To you people in this struggle who seek to preserve our form of government, I am proud of my role as a leader in the fight. I did not seek this role. It was thrust upon me in the course of events. I did not, nor do I now, shrink from my responsibilities in what is perhaps the greatest struggle for constitutional government during this century.

To you who oppose the great majority of Arkansas people in this fight, I urge you to think-lest in your consuming desire to gain your ends, among them the destruction of Orval Faubus, you destroy also the very principles of government that enable you and all others to live as a free people, and to rear your children under the high standards of living and freedom which prevail in this state and nation.

It was with a heavy heart that I found it necessary to sign the bills of the Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly and to close the High Schools in the City of Little Rock. I took this action only after the last hope of relief from an intolerable situation had been exhausted.

The Supreme Court shut its eyes to all the facts, and in essence said-integration at any price, even if it means the destruction of our school system, our educational processes, and the risk of disorder and violence that could result in the loss of life-perhaps yours.

This price, you as a people are unwilling to pay. This price I could not see you pay without first offering to you a legal plan whereby a catastrophe can be avoided, and still provide the opportunity of an education of our children.

This plan I now explain to you in detail. This plan is within the law. Even the Supreme Court, in the so-called school integration cases, has not ruled to the contrary. This plan is based upon our own State Constitution, written and adopted in 1874, and Arkansas Statutes enacted in 1875.

First. The federal government has no authority to require any state to operate public schools.

Second. The federal government has no authority to tell a state government for what purposes it may levy taxes, or how the tax money may be expended.

Third. In all the cases involving the public schools and integration, the federal courts have said only that an agency of the state cannot maintain segregated schools. This ruling does not apply in any way to private schools. Private schools are not affected by these decisions, even though the schools receive aid from state and federal sources.

In 1875, the General Assembly enacted two laws which give us a legal way to maintain a private system of education, at a time when a part of our public educational system cannot be maintained in a suitable and efficient manner.

Our own educational people have testified that a suitable educational system at Little Rock cannot be maintained on an integrated basis. Why, then, should we even attempt to keep these schools open as public schools when, based upon this sworn testimony, they clearly do not meet our constitutional provisions for a suitable and efficient system of education? We have a perfect right to close these schools as public institutions, and once closed and found to be not needed for public purposes, the school board has the right and the authority under a law that has been on our statute books for 83 years, to lease these buildings and facilities to a bona fide private agency.... [convert the high schools to private segregated schools].

Now, it is crystal-clear that if the voters of the Little Rock School District vote against integration on September 27th, these facilities will become surplus and not needed for public school purposes.... In this connection ... I received [a letter] from the School Board.... I accept this letter as having been written in good faith by immediately offering to a private group these unoccupied school buildings after the election. I say immediately after the election, because I have no doubt that the people of this school district will never voluntarily integrate their schools.

I am confident that the vote on September 27th will be against integration. I say a private group, because I understand that others may be formed.

Once again I am compelled to point out to the people of this city, this state, this nation, and the world, if you please, that our objective has been to maintain the peace and good order of the community. As long as there is a legal way, as I have outlined, to maintain the peace and good order and a suitable educational system. I will not shirk from my duty and responsibility....

Under Act 5 of the Second Extraordinary Session of the 61st General Assembly, a student seeking an education in another school, either private or public, because of a situation such as exists here now, will have the benefit of all funds to be expended for his education. The funds follow him to the school of his choice anywhere within the state.

The plan is sound and workable. It is all legal. To this the advocates of the so-called "law of the land" can have no objection....

There are many things in this [the] report ["Investigation of Public School Conditions" by the Committee on District of Columbia, House of Representatives, 84th Congress] which I cannot, in good taste, mention on this television program. Write to your Congressman and secure a copy of this report and read for yourself the revolting and shocking developments in the Washington, D.C., schools, following integration.

Now, what will you be voting on at the Special Election, September 27th? It will not be just to open the school or keep it closed, although that is a part of it....

It will not be deciding the question of segregation versus limited integration. In the ultimate, there can be no such thing as limited integration, so far as the public schools of Little Rock are concerned.

The choice you make on Saturday, September 27th, is whether to continue to fight for our constitutional rights, and the opportunity to find an acceptable solution to this problem, or you vote for the beginning of complete and total integration. And if the latter be your decision, it will come sooner than you think....

Some people dread, shrink from, and grow weary of the struggle in which we are now engaged. I grow weary, also, but is there any choice? Once integration is effected totally and completely, will the peace and harmony you desire be attained? If we are to judge by the results elsewhere, anywhere, once total, or near total integration is effected, the peace, the quiet, the harmony, the pride in our schools, and even the good relations that existed heretofore between
the races here, will be gone forever....

In conclusion, to you citizens of Little Rock, I must warn that you will be subjected to a terrific propaganda campaign from now until September 27th. This barrage of slanted, distorted, and even false versions, will emanate-yes, is already emanating, from the same sources as before-both inside and outside the city and the state. I know you, the people, will understand.

This issue is now where all public issues belong-in your hands, the hands of the people.

The decision is yours to make. Your decision will be my decision, as I am your public servant.

Public sentiment is with you in this struggle to preserve our legal and time-honored rights.

If you stand fast, we can win!

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(1958) Orval E. Faubus, "Speech on School Integration"

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Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress In September 1957 Arkansas Democratic Governor Orval E. Faubus became the national symbol of racial segregation when he used Arkansas National Guardsmen to block the enrollment of nine black students who had been ordered by a federal judge to desegregate Little Rock's Central High School.

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On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent a group of African-American students, who later became known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering the all-white Central High School. In a broadcast that evening, Faubus defends his decision to call in the state's National Guard.

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Orval Faubus Blocks Little Rock High School Integration

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On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent a group of African-American students, who later became known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering the all-white Central High School. In a broadcast that evening, Faubus defends his decision to call in the state's National Guard.