Bryant, Cyril E.

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Article that reviews Brooks Hays' career in The Link history. Hays felt a moral obligation ... to serve as peacemaker . . . even though it meant political suicide." For weeks the Congressman served as mediator between the President and the Governor as they traded charges and countercharges. He came within an eyelash of finding an acceptable solution, but Mr. Eisenhower finally believed it necessary to send federal troops to guarantee compliance with the U. S. Supreme Court ruling on integration, "I felt like a sparrow caught in a badminton game," he quipped. Hays, who had easily won the 1958 Democratic primary (normally tantamount to election in Arkansas), suddenly found his seat in Congress challenged by a sudden write-in campaign led by segregationist leaders eight days before the November general election. He did not have time to organize a campaign, and fell a few votes short of victory on election day. Even in defeat, Hays used his sense of humor to philosophize. A newsman interviewing him on CBS "Face the Nation" television, asked why Hays had not advised the nation of the perilous path he was walking in his role as mediator. "It reminds me of the hypochondriac whom nobody believed," Hays said. "He had them write on his tombstone, 'I told you I was sick.'" Hays's friends wondered, during the next few weeks, if his world would ever fit back together again. I had opportunity to call at his office and probe him for his innermost feelings. Was he...

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Brooks Hays Materials

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University of Arkansas