the Socialist Party of America. In May 1910, he and his friend Arch Cornett, a local teacher, founded the Mill Creek Local of the Socialist Party in Combs with ten members; at an all-time high, membership was close to 30, including Addie Faubus. Sam Faubus was a firm opponent of the U.S. involvement in World War I and once was arrested with Arch Cornett for distributing anti-war literature and charged with the Sedition Act of 1918 violation. The end of the war helped him to escape imprisonment. He also advocated introduction of the graduated income tax, old age benefits, supported racial equality (he despised and opposed segregation and racism, viewing it as plots to divide the working class), repeal of restricting voting poll tax, and women's suffrage, along with other socialists in Arkansas. In the 1950s, he supported desegregation. Faubus's son, Orval Faubus, being the Governor of Arkansas, became nationally and internationally controversial for seeking to oppose the 1957 integration of Central High School in the state capital of Little Rock. Sam Faubus disapproved of Orval's actions during the integration crisis and privately conveyed his position to him. Unbeknownst to his son, he wrote letters in support of desegregation to the Arkansas Gazette signed by a pseudonym, Jimmie Higgins, which was the Socialist Party slang for a novice member. At that time, Sam Faubus already changed his political standing, becoming a Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Democrat. Ultimately, the Federal Government intervened, and nine African American students known as the Little Rock Nine went on to graduate from Little Rock Central High School. Later years After he widowed in 1936, Faubus married in 1952 a widow, Maudie Blanch Jostmeyer Wonders (1903-1987), and lived on a ten-acre farm on Milk Creek where he raised chickens. The neighbors called him "Uncle Sam" after Orval Faubus became a governor. John Samuel Faubus died from lymphatic cancer on August 24, 1966, and was interred at Combs Cemetery in Madison County. His gravestone bears an inscription, "He did his share of the world's work." The Arkansas Gazette wrote about him, "Sam Faubus would have stood out in any time, that of his own father, his father's father, anytime. The Ozark mountaineers needed such a man who could articulate their anger at the exploitative economic system that plagued their lives." Further reading References External links People from Madison County, Arkansas 1887 births 1966 deaths Socialist Party of