J.D.

EAGLE:
FAYETTEVILLE (ARKANSAS) BUSINESSMAN,
STATES' RIGHTS ADVOCATE, AND SEGREGATIONST

By Dan Durning

J.D. Eagle owned his own real estate business in Fayetteville, Arkansas from 1925
until his death in 1975. He became involved in local politics in the 1940s, when he
was elected for a couple of terms as the Democratic Party's committeeman for
Fayetteville's Ward 1. In 1948, he switched his allegiance to the States' Rights
Democrat Party, which had nominated Strom Thurmond for president. He headed
the Washington Country branch of that party, which was strongly pro-segregation
and anti-civil rights.

I can find no newspaper or magazine articles that indicate Eagle remained active in
electoral politics after the start of the early 1950s, but he did feel the need to
express his views on states' rights and segregation when school desegregation
became a hot issue in 1954. He did so by writing a letter to readers titled, RE
SEGREGATION: A Plea for States Rights and A Return to Local Self-
Government, and purchasing space in the Northwest Arkansas Times
(Fayetteville, Arkansas) for its publication. His letter was published on June 19,
1954, and it was also issued as a four-page monograph. The monograph is
attached to this paper.

The context of Eagle’s letter is crucial for understanding his motivation for writing
and publishing it. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued the Brown
v Board of Education of Topeka decision, which ruled that the segregation of
schools was unconstitutional. Five days later, on May 22, 1954, the Fayetteville
School Board announced plans to quickly integrate Fayetteville High School (it was
more than ten years later before grade schools were integrated). The story of
school integration in Fayetteville is told well by Andrew Brill in an article entitled
“Brown in Fayetteville: Peaceful Southern School Desegregation in 1954,” published
in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Winter 2006) and in a book Civil
Obedience: An Oral History of School Desegregation in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, edited by J. L. Adams and T. A. Black (University of Arkansas Press,
1994).

As a ardent states’ righter and segregationist, Eagle was adamantly opposed to

both the Brown decision and Fayetteville’s action to quickly integrate its high
school. He published his letter to make his argument against forced integration.

Apparently, Eagle was one of few Fayetteville residents who strongly opposed the
integration plans. According to Brill, the integration of Fayetteville High School did

1
not encounter much opposition from within the city, though others living in
Southern Arkansas and elsewhere wrote to express their angry opposition.

At the time Eagle wrote his letter, he was nearly seventy years old and had been
living in Fayetteville for around thirty years. He was born John D Eagle (the D is
not an abbreviation) on April 5, 1885 in Bellefont, Arkansas (in Boone County, just
down Highway 62 from Harrison). He was the son of J.B. and Mattie Walters Eagle.
His uncle, James Phillip Eagle, had been an officer in the Confederate army and,
after the Civil War, a farmer and Baptist minister; he served as Arkansas’ governor
from 1889 to 1893.

J.D. Eagle attended the University of Arkansas, then returned to Bellefont, where
he became a realtor. The 1910 census showed that he was living in Bellefont with
his parents, and a younger brother (Hugh D.) and older sister (Virginia C). Also,
the 1920 census listed him as living with his parents in Bellefont working in real
estate. At some point when he was living in Bellefont, Eagle married a woman
named Marie; they were divorced on December 2, 1925.

In 1925, J.D. Eagle moved to Fayetteville, where he opened his own real estate
firm. The 1930 census shows him living in Fayetteville, married to Mildred R. (she
was 26 at the time; he was 44). They were divorced sometime in the 1930s, and
Eagle married Ruth Myers. According to his WWII registration (undated, but likely
completed in 1940), he and Ruth lived at 24 Duncan Street in Fayetteville and had
telephone number 616. They had a son, John Phillip, in February 1941.

Eagle had a long career in real estate; his advertisements starting appearing in the
local newspapers soon after he arrived in Fayetteville and they continued nearly
until his death in 1975. In 1974, he received a 50-year service citation from the
Fayetteville Board of Realtors.

During his fifty years in Fayetteville, Eagle was engaged in many civic organizations
in the city; for example, he was a Rotarian for 48 years. Also, he was a long-time
member of the local chamber of commerce. His wife, Ruth, was energetically
involved in different music, arts, and social groups in Fayetteville over a long span
of time. For over three decades, she played the viola and violin at many of the
city’s musical events. Both J.D. and Ruth Eagle were active members of the First
Baptist Church.

J. D. Eagle died on July 14, 1975. He was 90 years old.

2
3
4
5
6