Arkansas governor Orval Faubus holds up a sign against racial segregation in schools.

Charles Mingus was a very influential Jazz musician during the Civil Rights Movement. He was a string bassist and band leader raised in California. Mingus began playing music at a young age and worked with many great classical and jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and H. Rheinshagan, the principal bassist for the New York Philharmonic. Mingus eventually moved to New York where he specialized in avant-garde and bebop music and played with greats such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

Mingus was known for often being overtly political with his pieces, with one of his most important political pieces being titled “Fables of Faubus.”

The song was written in response to 9 young black girls being barred from entering school in Little Rock, Arkansas by protesters and the national guard. These students were supposed to be the first-ever African American students to attend a desegregated school after the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools in America were illegal in 1954. The students were ordered by a federal judge to start attending Little Rock Central High School immediately, but the girls were repeatedly denied entry. This caused national outrage that eventually led to Eisenhower making an order to send the army to accompany the students to school roughly a month later. Even after the students were allowed into school, public outrage still remained towards many politicians involved, specifically Governor Orval Faubus and President Eisenhower.

“Fables of Faubus” was written as a direct call-out to these politicians, especially Orval Faubus. The song was originally recorded in 1959, but remastered to include new lyrics in 1960. These lyrics referred to politicians of the time as Nazis, Fascists, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. The chorus of the song is also a direct call-out to Faubus, saying,

“Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Dannie, ‘Governor Faubus! ‘Why is he so sick and ridiculous? He won’t permit us in his schools! Then he’s a fool!”

The song is still considered a standard in jazz today, and will forever be memorialized as proof of the politcal power of music.

“The Little Rock Nine.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, 6 Sept. 2018, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/little-rock-nine.

“Orval Faubus Holds Sign Opposing Racial Integration.” The American Mosaic: The African American Experience, ABC-CLIO, 2024, africanamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/2155121. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024