Arkansas History

Arkansas History

Review

Lawrence Brooks Hays was a twentieth-century political, civic and religious leaders in Arkansas. He was one of the most influential members of government delegations of the Congress after World War II and one of the few laymen to serve as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Although he often called himself a politician, his wife, through the label that best described him was "Arkansas is a social worker."

Brooks Hays was born on August 9th, 1898 in London (Pope County) at the bottom of the Ozark Plateau. His father, Steele Hays was a teacher who later became a prominent lawyer and his mother, Sallie Butler, Hayes is also a teacher. Brooks grew up in Russellville, the seat of Pope County, where his early life, steeped in the culture of the Southern Baptist Church and the Democratic Party, the two institutions to which he would hold the life and dedication. Hayes attended the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) from 1915 to 1919, where he was a leader in many campus organizations, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree. There he met the love of his life, Marion Prather, whom he finally married at 2 February 1922. They had two children, a son and a daughter. As a member of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), the summer after his junior year, he received military training at Camp Pike in Pulaski County during the Second World War, but he was released shortly after the 1918 armistice. From 1919 to 1922 he attended the Faculty of Law George Washington University in Washington, DC, working full-time for the Department of Treasury.

Upon returning to Arkansas, he joined his father law practice, and then secured the appointment as Assistant Attorney General in 1925. He subsequently became an active leader in Little Rock (Pulaski County) communities, of social groups, such as a Freemason, in the Lion's Club, and the Urban League. Hayes became a leading layman in the Second Baptist Church, where he led a Sunday school class, which attracted hundreds of men from Protestant congregations, which became known as "Brooks Hays of class." He was eventually elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention for consecutive terms in 1957 and 1958.

Hayes began his formal political career when he ran and lost two consecutive close race for Governor of Arkansas in 1928 and 1930. In 1932, however, he was easily elected Democratic National ...