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Obituary for Brooks Hays in the New York Times Ex-Rep. Brooks Hays, Aide to Presidents, 83, Dies By Marjorie Hunter Special to The New York Times WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Brooks Hays, a voice of Southern moderation in his 16 years in Congress, died in his sleep last night at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 83 years old. While he had made his home in the Washington area for many years, he was very much the product of his native Arkansas, a fiercely loyal Democrat and an accomplished teller of tales, much in the manner of the late Will Rogers. In his later years in Congress, he was noted for fashioning politically realistic compromises on explosive civil rights issues, and it was he who arranged a meeting between President Eisenhower and Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas to discuss the crisis that led to school de-segregation in Little Rock. His moderate stand on racial issues cost him his seat in Congress in 1958 when opponents mounted a successful write-in campaign for Dr. Dale Alford, an outspoken segregationist. Just months later, writing in The New York Times Magazine, Mr. Hays renewed his call for moderation and pre-dicted that the day would come when one could say: "There was a South of fears and misgivings; that South is dead. There is a South of human kind­ness and of law, of justice and of peace - that South, thank God, is living and daily growing stronger.'' Both before entering Congress in 1942...

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Brooks Hays Materials

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University of Arkansas