Orval Faubus Character Analysis in Warriors Don’t Cry

– The Governor of Arkansas and a segregationist. Faubus sends soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard to Central High School, but he does so with the purpose of neither ensuring the integration of the school nor maintaining its segregation—only to carry out orders. Faubus opposes integration, claiming that it would unleash violence. He clashes with President Eisenhower over what the president sees as Faubus’s unwillingness to cooperate with the Supreme Court’s order to integrate schools “with all deliberate speed.” In 1959, Faubus shuts down all Little Rock schools in yet another effort to defy federal orders to integrate.

Orval Faubus Quotes in Warriors Don’t Cry

The Warriors Don’t Cry quotes below are all either spoken by Orval Faubus or refer to Orval Faubus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Racism and Living Under Jim Crow Theme Icon

).

It’s Thursday, September 26, 1957. Now I have a bodyguard. I know very well that the President didn’t send those soldiers just to protect me but to show support for an idea—the idea that a governor can’t ignore federal laws. Still, I feel specially cared about because the guard is there. If he wasn’t there, I’d hear more of the voices of those people who say I’m a nigger […] that I’m not valuable, that I have no right to be alive [….] Thank you, Danny.

Related Characters: Melba Pattillo Beals (speaker), Orval Faubus, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Danny

Related Symbols: Ethiopia

Page Number and Citation: 106

Explanation and Analysis: