Arkansas Governor Benjamin Travis Laney Jr.
Born: November 25, 1896
Died: January 21, 1977
Birth State: Arkansas
Party: Democrat
Family: Married Lucile Kirtley; three children
School(s): Hendrix College, Arkansas Teachers College, University of Utah
Periods in Office: From: January 9, 1945
To: January 11, 1949
State Web Site
Military Service: Navy
War(s) Served: World War I
BENJAMIN TRAVIS LANEY JR., Arkansas's 33rd Governor, was born in the Jones Chapel community in Quachita County, Arkansas, on November 25, 1896. He attended the public schools in Quachita County, never finishing high school. However, his ability earned him admission to Hendrix College in 1915. In 1918 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and served until the Armistice. After the war, Laney returned to his studies, earning a degree from the Arkansas Teachers College in 1924, and taking graduate courses at the University of Utah. Laney owned a drugstore in Conway, Arkansas, transacted real estate specializing in farmland, and entered the oil business when oil was discovered on his family farm near Camden, Arkansas. He entered politics in 1935, when he was elected Mayor of Camden. He was reelected in 1937 and served until 1939. Laney ran for governor and won both the 1944 and 1946 elections. During his tenure, the Revenue Stabilization Law was enacted, which proved to be his greatest achievement. The Arkansas Resources and Development Commission was formed and the Corporation and Utilities Commissions were consolidated into the Public Service Commission. Also during his tenure, a law passed providing for construction of the War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, and for a governor's mansion. Laney did not seek reelection for a third term and left office on January 11, 1949. Laney ran unsuccessfully in the 1950 gubernatorial race, but remained active in politics, serving as a delegate to the 1969 Arkansas Constitutional Convention. Governor Benjamin T. Laney Jr. died of a heart attack on January 21, 1977, and is buried at the Camden Memorial Cemetery.
Sources:
Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 1, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.
Donovan, Timothy P., and Willard B. Gatewood, Jr., The Governors of Arkansas, Essays in Political Biography, Fayetteville, The University of Arkansas Press, 1981
Showing posts with label Ben Laney Biography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Laney Biography. Show all posts
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Ouachita County Governors
Benjamin Travis Laney, Jr.
Ben Laney was born on a small farm in the Cooterneck community in Ouachita County. His father was Benajmin Travis Laney, Sr.; his mother was Martha Ella Soxon Laney. They had eleven children; six of those eleven children received college degrees. Laney himself actually did not finish high school, but his talents were abundant enough to land a teaching job and admission to Hendrix College in 1915. He left Hendrix and joined the Navy in 1918. He returned once again to college, this time attending Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) and received the A.B. degree in 1924. Laney married Lucile Kirtley, a student at ASTC. They had three sons: Benjamin Travis III, William David, and Phillip.
During 1922, oil was discovered on the Laney farm. Laney moved back to Camden and entered the oil business. Other interests were farming, banking, cotton gins, feed, and grocery and hardware stores. He was the mayor of Camden from 1935-1939.
He announced his candidacy for governor of Arkansas in 1944 on the Democratic ticket. He launched his campaign by saying "I am not a politician." His opponent in the primary, J. Bryan Sims withdrew his nomination, and Laney handily defeated his Republican opponent in the general election. In 1946 Laney was elected to a second term with an 84% margin over Republican W. T. Mills.
During Laney's first term as governor, he submitted the revenue stabilization plan to the legislature. He had announced during his campaign to make all state appropriations from a single general fund. This bill passed, and the law's essential features have remained intact to this day. This became Laney's greatest achievement, a monument to fiscal responsibility.
In 1947 Laney obtained appropriations to build an official residence for the governor of Arkansas, stating that the lack of a residence was an embarrassment to Arkansas. War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock was also built during Laney's administratrion. This project had his full support despite strong opposition from some that it would be an "institution of debauchery."
Laney declined to run for a third term in 1948, but was active in politics as the Dixiecrat's chairman. State's rights had come to the fore at this time, and the southern Governors aligned themselves against Harry Truman's call for several measures to abolish racial discrimination. Laney supported the racial segregation, but admitted that the blacks in the South had not been given equal opportunities.
In 1950 Laney challenged Sid McMath, a popular governor of the state of Arkansas. McMath was seeking his second term, and Laney was seeking a third term after the McMath interim. His campaign slogan was "Let's Re-Elect Ben Laney Governor for a Second Time."
After his 1950 campaign loss, Laney remained active and interested in politics. He disapproved of the handling of the integration matter by Orval Faubus, but continued to be a state's rights champion. Following a long illness, Laney died of a heart attack in January of 1977 and was buried in Camden in Memorial Cemetery.
Ben Laney was born on a small farm in the Cooterneck community in Ouachita County. His father was Benajmin Travis Laney, Sr.; his mother was Martha Ella Soxon Laney. They had eleven children; six of those eleven children received college degrees. Laney himself actually did not finish high school, but his talents were abundant enough to land a teaching job and admission to Hendrix College in 1915. He left Hendrix and joined the Navy in 1918. He returned once again to college, this time attending Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) and received the A.B. degree in 1924. Laney married Lucile Kirtley, a student at ASTC. They had three sons: Benjamin Travis III, William David, and Phillip.
During 1922, oil was discovered on the Laney farm. Laney moved back to Camden and entered the oil business. Other interests were farming, banking, cotton gins, feed, and grocery and hardware stores. He was the mayor of Camden from 1935-1939.
He announced his candidacy for governor of Arkansas in 1944 on the Democratic ticket. He launched his campaign by saying "I am not a politician." His opponent in the primary, J. Bryan Sims withdrew his nomination, and Laney handily defeated his Republican opponent in the general election. In 1946 Laney was elected to a second term with an 84% margin over Republican W. T. Mills.
During Laney's first term as governor, he submitted the revenue stabilization plan to the legislature. He had announced during his campaign to make all state appropriations from a single general fund. This bill passed, and the law's essential features have remained intact to this day. This became Laney's greatest achievement, a monument to fiscal responsibility.
In 1947 Laney obtained appropriations to build an official residence for the governor of Arkansas, stating that the lack of a residence was an embarrassment to Arkansas. War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock was also built during Laney's administratrion. This project had his full support despite strong opposition from some that it would be an "institution of debauchery."
Laney declined to run for a third term in 1948, but was active in politics as the Dixiecrat's chairman. State's rights had come to the fore at this time, and the southern Governors aligned themselves against Harry Truman's call for several measures to abolish racial discrimination. Laney supported the racial segregation, but admitted that the blacks in the South had not been given equal opportunities.
In 1950 Laney challenged Sid McMath, a popular governor of the state of Arkansas. McMath was seeking his second term, and Laney was seeking a third term after the McMath interim. His campaign slogan was "Let's Re-Elect Ben Laney Governor for a Second Time."
After his 1950 campaign loss, Laney remained active and interested in politics. He disapproved of the handling of the integration matter by Orval Faubus, but continued to be a state's rights champion. Following a long illness, Laney died of a heart attack in January of 1977 and was buried in Camden in Memorial Cemetery.
Old State House Biography of Ben Laney
Benjamin Travis Laney, Jr.
(1945-1949)
From the collection of the Old State House Museum
Laney, born at Cooterneck in Ouachita County in 1896, was one of eleven children. He entered Hendrix College in 1915, where he was an honor student, but left before graduating to join the Navy. After the war, he earned a degree from Arkansas Teachers College in Conway and briefly attended graduate school at the University of Utah. After the discovery of oil on the family farm, Laney established himself in Camden where he engaged in farming, banking and various other enterprises in addition to the oil business. In 1925, he married Lucile Kirtley of Lewisville, Arkansas. They had three sons.
Although Laney had become mayor of Camden in 1935, he was virtually a political unknown when announced for governor in 1944. He ran on the on the slogan: "I am not a politician" in a heated three-way primary contest against State Comptroller J. Bryan Sims and U. S. Representative David D. Terry. Both Laney and Terry concentrated their attacks on Sims, who was the front runner, charging him with using the State Police to the benefit of his campaign. Laney's contention that this amounted to "Gestapo tactics" struck a chord in 1944. Laney polled 38.5% of the vote, outdistancing Sims by only 7,500 votes. On the eve of the run-off, Sims suddenly withdrew causing many to speculate on behind-the-scene manipulations by Homer Adkins.
Chief among Laney's legislative programs in 1945 was his Revenue Stabilization Plan designed to pay off the state's outstanding debt, balance the budget, and protect Arkansas finances against future recessions. Despite predictions that the proposal was far too sensible ever to be adopted by the Arkansas General Assembly, the measure passed both houses with only one dissenting vote. Laney also signed Arkansas's "right to work" amendment barring closed union shops, a measure pushed in Arkansas by the Christian America Association, a Texas-based conservative organization.
Although a political outsider, Laney stunned veteran political observers with his ability to control the legislature. This stemmed in part from his lack of identification with any political faction and from his willingness to spend long hours cultivating legislators in order to get passed that he favored.
Evidence of Laney's political savvy was his handling of the so-called "GI revolt," led by reform-minded veterans returning from the war who sought to fight their way into the local Democratic committee in Hot Springs. While Laney was forced to assign state troopers to some polling places to prevent violence in 1946, he managed to avoid being associated with either rebels or the party machine.
Laney faced another challenge in the 1947 session in the form of the self-styled "economic bloc," a group of fiscal conservatives from rural districts who tended to oppose any measure which did not directly benefit their constituents. This group initially opposed three measures Laney supported: the building of the Governor's mansion and War Memorial Stadium, and the restoration of the Old State House. All three eventually passed, however, with scarcely a hint of opposition.
Laney declined to run again for governor in 1948, turning his attention instead to national politics. The occasion was Truman's civil-rights message to Congress in February of that year which attempted to address racial discrimination in the United States. Laney joined the forces opposed to federal civil rights legislation and figured prominently in the third party movement known as the "Dixiecrats," serving for a time as their chairman.
Angered by Sid McMath's opposition to the Dixiecrats, Laney vowed to unseat him in 1950. In a campaign marred by race-baiting, Laney lost by a margin of 2-to-1.
Laney died in January of 1977.
(1945-1949)
From the collection of the Old State House Museum
Laney, born at Cooterneck in Ouachita County in 1896, was one of eleven children. He entered Hendrix College in 1915, where he was an honor student, but left before graduating to join the Navy. After the war, he earned a degree from Arkansas Teachers College in Conway and briefly attended graduate school at the University of Utah. After the discovery of oil on the family farm, Laney established himself in Camden where he engaged in farming, banking and various other enterprises in addition to the oil business. In 1925, he married Lucile Kirtley of Lewisville, Arkansas. They had three sons.
Although Laney had become mayor of Camden in 1935, he was virtually a political unknown when announced for governor in 1944. He ran on the on the slogan: "I am not a politician" in a heated three-way primary contest against State Comptroller J. Bryan Sims and U. S. Representative David D. Terry. Both Laney and Terry concentrated their attacks on Sims, who was the front runner, charging him with using the State Police to the benefit of his campaign. Laney's contention that this amounted to "Gestapo tactics" struck a chord in 1944. Laney polled 38.5% of the vote, outdistancing Sims by only 7,500 votes. On the eve of the run-off, Sims suddenly withdrew causing many to speculate on behind-the-scene manipulations by Homer Adkins.
Chief among Laney's legislative programs in 1945 was his Revenue Stabilization Plan designed to pay off the state's outstanding debt, balance the budget, and protect Arkansas finances against future recessions. Despite predictions that the proposal was far too sensible ever to be adopted by the Arkansas General Assembly, the measure passed both houses with only one dissenting vote. Laney also signed Arkansas's "right to work" amendment barring closed union shops, a measure pushed in Arkansas by the Christian America Association, a Texas-based conservative organization.
Although a political outsider, Laney stunned veteran political observers with his ability to control the legislature. This stemmed in part from his lack of identification with any political faction and from his willingness to spend long hours cultivating legislators in order to get passed that he favored.
Evidence of Laney's political savvy was his handling of the so-called "GI revolt," led by reform-minded veterans returning from the war who sought to fight their way into the local Democratic committee in Hot Springs. While Laney was forced to assign state troopers to some polling places to prevent violence in 1946, he managed to avoid being associated with either rebels or the party machine.
Laney faced another challenge in the 1947 session in the form of the self-styled "economic bloc," a group of fiscal conservatives from rural districts who tended to oppose any measure which did not directly benefit their constituents. This group initially opposed three measures Laney supported: the building of the Governor's mansion and War Memorial Stadium, and the restoration of the Old State House. All three eventually passed, however, with scarcely a hint of opposition.
Laney declined to run again for governor in 1948, turning his attention instead to national politics. The occasion was Truman's civil-rights message to Congress in February of that year which attempted to address racial discrimination in the United States. Laney joined the forces opposed to federal civil rights legislation and figured prominently in the third party movement known as the "Dixiecrats," serving for a time as their chairman.
Angered by Sid McMath's opposition to the Dixiecrats, Laney vowed to unseat him in 1950. In a campaign marred by race-baiting, Laney lost by a margin of 2-to-1.
Laney died in January of 1977.
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr.
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr.
Born: November 25, 1896, at Jones Chapel (Cooterneck), Arkansas
Died: January 21, 1977, at Magnolia, Arkansas
Buried: Camden Memorial Cemetery, Camden
Served: 1945-1949
“Business Ben” Laney, born in 1896, attended the public schools in Ouachita County. In 1918 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served until the Armistice; he earned a degree from the Arkansas Teachers College in 1924 and took graduate courses from the University of Utah. Laney owned a drugstore in Conway, Arkansas, traded in farm real estate and entered the oil business when oil was discovered on his family farm near Camden, Arkansas. He entered politics in 1935 when elected Mayor of Camden, serving until 1939. Laney ran for governor and won both the 1944 and 1946 elections. In his first campaign, Laney called for “efficiency, economy and consolidation” in state government; he followed through by promoting the ultimately adopted Revenue Stabilization Act which proved to be his greatest achievement. While Laney was governor, the Arkansas Resources and Development Commission was formed and the Corporation and Utilities Commissions were consolidated into the Public Service Commission. Also during his tenure, construction of both the War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock and the governor's mansion was authorized by the Assembly. Laney was a consistent supporter of racial segregation and eventually became identified with the “Dixiecrat” states’ rights movement but, notably, during Laney’s administration the University of Arkansas became the first historically white southern public university to admit African-American students. Laney did not seek re-election for a third term and left office on January 11, 1949. He ran, unsuccessfully, in the 1950 gubernatorial race but remained active in public affairs, serving as a delegate to the 1969 Arkansas Constitutional Convention.
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr.
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr. (1896–1977)
Thirty-third Governor (1945–1949)
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr. served two terms as governor of Arkansas. His most notable achievement was the state’s 1945 Revenue Stabilization Law, which prohibited deficit spending. Though he once said, “I am not a politician,” his conservative views put him in the spotlight at a time when the Democratic Party was becoming more liberal.
Although he opposed desegregation, the University of Arkansas School of Law became the South’s first all-white public institution to admit black students during his tenure.
Ben Laney was born on November 25, 1896, in Jones Chapel (Ouachita County), the son of Benjamin Travis Laney and Martha Ellen Saxon. He was one of eleven children, and his father was a farmer. He entered Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County) in 1915 but left in 1916 to teach before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He received a BA from Arkansas State Normal School (now the University of Central Arkansas) in 1924.
Laney worked in business and banking from 1925 to 1926 in Conway, where he and Lucile Kirtley were married on January 19, 1926; they had three sons. In 1927, Laney returned to Ouachita County, where his business dealings included oil, banking, farming, cotton gins, and retail stores.
He was the mayor of Camden (Ouachita County) from 1935 to 1939 and a member of the Arkansas Penitentiary Board from 1941 to 1944. His activities on behalf of John L. McClellan’s 1942 U.S. Senate bid solidified a friendship and political alliance.
A relative unknown when he ran for the 1944 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, he had the support of conservative business and financial interests. His opponents were former congressman David D. Terry and State Comptroller J. Bryan Sims. Sims withdrew ten days before the election amid accusations of a negotiated deal, and Laney easily defeated Republican opponent H. C. Stump in the general election, as was the norm in this essentially one-party political era. His re-nomination and reelection in 1946 were effortless.
The governor’s work on behalf of efficiency, economy, and consolidation in state government and his encouragement of industrialization and broadly based economic development earned him the nickname “Business Ben.” These activities and his opposition to organized labor strengthened his ties with Arkansas business conservatives.
Laney’s most notable achievement was the 1945 Revenue Stabilization Law, which combined flexibility in funding state programs with a priority mechanism to prevent deficit spending. Before 1945, appropriations were tied to specific taxes; as a result, some revenue streams came up short while others had more money than needed. The new law created a single general fund from which all state appropriations were made and prohibited departments and institutions from spending if cash was not available. It also created an orderly system of budget cuts if the revenue was not available.
In 1947, he successfully urged the legislature to create a legislative council to provide research and bill-drafting assistance for Arkansas’s part-time legislators. However, Laney is remembered less for his streamlining of governmental structure and finance than for his opposition to proposals that would alter race relations and weaken or end segregation. He spoke out against progressive federal initiatives to outlaw lynching and the poll tax and quietly worked to prevent desegregation of state professional and higher education programs. Laney claimed that his actions were based on constitutional principles and states’ rights philosophy and not on racial considerations, but he had praised Arkansas and Arkansans as being close to what he described as good and pure Anglo-Saxon stock. Although Laney was Arkansas’s last philosophically consistent segregationist governor, it was on his watch that the UA School of Law admitted black students in 1948.
In 1948, Laney broke with the Truman administration (which he had enthusiastically welcomed in 1945) over President Truman’s use of federal law to require fair employment practices and end racial discrimination. The governor was a leader in the States’ Rights Democrats (Dixiecrats) movement, and the Dixiecrats considered him for a presidential or vice presidential nomination.
As governor, Laney had campaigned for the Dixiecrat ticket (Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright), despite his doubts about the success of a third party in the South, but Sidney S. McMath, elected governor in 1948, vigorously supported Truman and helped hold Arkansas in the Democratic column in the presidential election. With the Democratic Party divided due to Truman’s civil rights policies, many Southerners wanted to see Strom Thurmond’s name on the ballot instead of Truman’s. However, McMath’s campaigning at the Democratic State Convention prevented Thurmond from getting the nomination. Laney was so bitter toward McMath that, in 1950, he challenged McMath and sought a third term (a feat accomplished only once before in Arkansas). McMath, with the support of the black electorate and organized labor, handily defeated the former governor in the general election.
Laney remained a spokesman for states’ rights but disapproved of Governor Orval E. Faubus’s actions during the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis. Laney believed that Faubus was less a defender of Southern traditions on race and states’ rights than a demagogue interested in immediate political gain.
Laney embraced the economics of a post–World War II “New South” and toiled to attract industry and investment capital to Arkansas. An articulate spokesman for the state, he traveled the country, promoting a new image for Arkansas. However, regarding race, Laney clung to an old Southern style of benign paternalism. The linking of economic growth with a more enlightened view of racial integration was left to Laney’s successors.
In 1969, Laney served as a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. He was active in the reelection campaigns of McClellan (1972) and Senator J. William Fulbright (1974), two close friends whom he supported in spite of their Democratic affiliation. Laney, though, supported the presidential candidates George Wallace (American Party) in 1968 and Gerald Ford (Republican Party) in 1976 because of his hostility toward the new brand of Democrats. He managed the rice farm of Winthrop Rockefeller in the 1960s and spent his last years in Magnolia (Columbia County) looking after his own business affairs.
Laney died on January 21, 1977, in Magnolia and was buried in Camden Memorial Cemetery.
For additional information:Donovan, Timothy P., Willard B. Gatewood Jr., and Jeannie M. Whayne, eds. The Governors of Arkansas: Essays in Political Biography, 2d ed. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1995.
Governor Benjamin Travis Laney Jr. Papers. Torreyson Library Special Collections. University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas.
Tom Forgey
Magnolia, Arkansas
This entry, originally published in Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives, appears in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture in an altered form. Arkansas Biography is available from the University of Arkansas Press.
Thirty-third Governor (1945–1949)
Benjamin Travis Laney Jr. served two terms as governor of Arkansas. His most notable achievement was the state’s 1945 Revenue Stabilization Law, which prohibited deficit spending. Though he once said, “I am not a politician,” his conservative views put him in the spotlight at a time when the Democratic Party was becoming more liberal.
Although he opposed desegregation, the University of Arkansas School of Law became the South’s first all-white public institution to admit black students during his tenure.
Ben Laney was born on November 25, 1896, in Jones Chapel (Ouachita County), the son of Benjamin Travis Laney and Martha Ellen Saxon. He was one of eleven children, and his father was a farmer. He entered Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County) in 1915 but left in 1916 to teach before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He received a BA from Arkansas State Normal School (now the University of Central Arkansas) in 1924.
Laney worked in business and banking from 1925 to 1926 in Conway, where he and Lucile Kirtley were married on January 19, 1926; they had three sons. In 1927, Laney returned to Ouachita County, where his business dealings included oil, banking, farming, cotton gins, and retail stores.
He was the mayor of Camden (Ouachita County) from 1935 to 1939 and a member of the Arkansas Penitentiary Board from 1941 to 1944. His activities on behalf of John L. McClellan’s 1942 U.S. Senate bid solidified a friendship and political alliance.
A relative unknown when he ran for the 1944 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, he had the support of conservative business and financial interests. His opponents were former congressman David D. Terry and State Comptroller J. Bryan Sims. Sims withdrew ten days before the election amid accusations of a negotiated deal, and Laney easily defeated Republican opponent H. C. Stump in the general election, as was the norm in this essentially one-party political era. His re-nomination and reelection in 1946 were effortless.
The governor’s work on behalf of efficiency, economy, and consolidation in state government and his encouragement of industrialization and broadly based economic development earned him the nickname “Business Ben.” These activities and his opposition to organized labor strengthened his ties with Arkansas business conservatives.
Laney’s most notable achievement was the 1945 Revenue Stabilization Law, which combined flexibility in funding state programs with a priority mechanism to prevent deficit spending. Before 1945, appropriations were tied to specific taxes; as a result, some revenue streams came up short while others had more money than needed. The new law created a single general fund from which all state appropriations were made and prohibited departments and institutions from spending if cash was not available. It also created an orderly system of budget cuts if the revenue was not available.
In 1947, he successfully urged the legislature to create a legislative council to provide research and bill-drafting assistance for Arkansas’s part-time legislators. However, Laney is remembered less for his streamlining of governmental structure and finance than for his opposition to proposals that would alter race relations and weaken or end segregation. He spoke out against progressive federal initiatives to outlaw lynching and the poll tax and quietly worked to prevent desegregation of state professional and higher education programs. Laney claimed that his actions were based on constitutional principles and states’ rights philosophy and not on racial considerations, but he had praised Arkansas and Arkansans as being close to what he described as good and pure Anglo-Saxon stock. Although Laney was Arkansas’s last philosophically consistent segregationist governor, it was on his watch that the UA School of Law admitted black students in 1948.
In 1948, Laney broke with the Truman administration (which he had enthusiastically welcomed in 1945) over President Truman’s use of federal law to require fair employment practices and end racial discrimination. The governor was a leader in the States’ Rights Democrats (Dixiecrats) movement, and the Dixiecrats considered him for a presidential or vice presidential nomination.
As governor, Laney had campaigned for the Dixiecrat ticket (Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright), despite his doubts about the success of a third party in the South, but Sidney S. McMath, elected governor in 1948, vigorously supported Truman and helped hold Arkansas in the Democratic column in the presidential election. With the Democratic Party divided due to Truman’s civil rights policies, many Southerners wanted to see Strom Thurmond’s name on the ballot instead of Truman’s. However, McMath’s campaigning at the Democratic State Convention prevented Thurmond from getting the nomination. Laney was so bitter toward McMath that, in 1950, he challenged McMath and sought a third term (a feat accomplished only once before in Arkansas). McMath, with the support of the black electorate and organized labor, handily defeated the former governor in the general election.
Laney remained a spokesman for states’ rights but disapproved of Governor Orval E. Faubus’s actions during the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis. Laney believed that Faubus was less a defender of Southern traditions on race and states’ rights than a demagogue interested in immediate political gain.
Laney embraced the economics of a post–World War II “New South” and toiled to attract industry and investment capital to Arkansas. An articulate spokesman for the state, he traveled the country, promoting a new image for Arkansas. However, regarding race, Laney clung to an old Southern style of benign paternalism. The linking of economic growth with a more enlightened view of racial integration was left to Laney’s successors.
In 1969, Laney served as a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. He was active in the reelection campaigns of McClellan (1972) and Senator J. William Fulbright (1974), two close friends whom he supported in spite of their Democratic affiliation. Laney, though, supported the presidential candidates George Wallace (American Party) in 1968 and Gerald Ford (Republican Party) in 1976 because of his hostility toward the new brand of Democrats. He managed the rice farm of Winthrop Rockefeller in the 1960s and spent his last years in Magnolia (Columbia County) looking after his own business affairs.
Laney died on January 21, 1977, in Magnolia and was buried in Camden Memorial Cemetery.
For additional information:Donovan, Timothy P., Willard B. Gatewood Jr., and Jeannie M. Whayne, eds. The Governors of Arkansas: Essays in Political Biography, 2d ed. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1995.
Governor Benjamin Travis Laney Jr. Papers. Torreyson Library Special Collections. University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas.
Tom Forgey
Magnolia, Arkansas
This entry, originally published in Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives, appears in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture in an altered form. Arkansas Biography is available from the University of Arkansas Press.
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