Charles Mingus: Original Faubus Fables

In 1957, as a defiant white mob at Little Rock's Central High School chanted "Two, four, six, eight; we don't want to integrate," Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus marshaled the state's National Guard to defend segregation. In response, President Eisenhower dispatched the U.S. Army to enforce court-ordered integration. Ike won. In 1959, Charles Mingus recorded "Fables of Faubus" for Columbia, which forbade his verbal mockery of the racist governor. In 1960, Candid removed the muzzle, and Mingus dedicated an uncensored "Original Faubus Fables" to "the first or second or third all-American heel." Mingus won. Harrowing, hilarious and historic, this is protest jazz at its finest.