The University Libraries’ special collections department launched a digital collection documenting the life and work of Brooks Hays on Aug. 9, the 113^th anniversary of his birth. Hays (1898–1981) was a political, civic, and religious leader from Pope County and was a leading Democratic congressman from Arkansas’ Fifth District from 1942 to 1959.

The digital collection, titled “Principles and Politics: Documenting the Career of Congressman Brooks Hays,” includes articles, campaign materials, cartoons and drawings, correspondence, diaries, photographs, poems, prayers, speeches and tributes from his life and seven-decade career. The collection is available online through the University Libraries’ website.

Brooks Hays attended the University of Arkansas from 1915 to 1919, where he met his wife, Marion Prather Hays, in Old Main during his freshman year. He attended George Washington University for law school and served as an Arkansas assistant state attorney general. Hays ran for governor of Arkansas in 1928 and 1930 and for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1933. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1942 and served eight consecutive terms.

Hays was defeated in the 1958 congressional election. Special collections department head Tom W. Dillard noted that Hays worked to mediate the escalating civil rights conflicts during the 1950s. “Congressman Hays, who had always been a racial moderate, refused to join Governor Orval Faubus in his efforts to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. In retribution, the Faubus political machine organized opposition to Hays in his 1958 campaign for re-election to Congress. Little Rock physician Dale Alford, the Faubus candidate, defeated Hays as a write-in candidate. Hays graciously retired from Congress and devoted his considerable energies to a variety of causes,” said Dillard.

Brooks Hays with President John F. Kennedy, 1961, from Politics is My Parish: An Autobiography, by Brooks Hays, p. 201

Hays served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1957-1958, being one of the few laymen elected to that position, and began a writing career. In addition to his congressional career, Hays served in five presidential administrations in various capacities. President Eisenhower appointed him to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, President John F. Kennedy appointed him assistant secretary of state for congressional relations, and Hays served as special assistant to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He also held various academic appointments, including director of the Ecumenical Institute at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

He had a legendary sense of humor, and his personal friends included many political giants of the 20th century. On the occasion of Hays’ 80th birthday, he received a letter from close friend and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who offered this praise of his friend, “Few Americans have done so much to further the cause of tolerance, understanding and fellowship among diverse races and creeds; and no one in our time has done it with such delicious wit and sagacious humor.”

The materials in this digital collection represent only a fraction of the Brooks Hays manuscript materials held by the University Libraries’ special collections department. The bulk of the materials was donated by Hays in the 1970s, with additional materials donated by his family members after his death in 1981. A description of the complete Brooks Hays collection is available on the University Libraries’ website. Additional information on both the digital and manuscript collections is available by calling the special collections department at 479-575-5577.