The Citizens’ Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens’ Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash against the US Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

This 1957 cartoon, distributed by the segregationist Capital Citizens Council in Little Rock, Arkansas, casts President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower as “Brer Ike”—a twist on the folktale figures from the “Uncle Remus” stories—and depicts him grappling with a “Tar Baby” that clearly symbolizes the school integration crisis. Meanwhile, Governor Orval Faubus stands by, hands clasped behind his back, seemingly unperturbed. The figure labeled “Brownell” (Eisenhower’s Attorney General, Herbert Brownell Jr.) lurks with a shotgun in the background.

Historical Context

In 1957, Little Rock became a national flashpoint in the struggle over public school desegregation. Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, many Southern states, including Arkansas, resisted federally mandated integration. Governor Orval Faubus, in particular, gained notoriety for deploying the National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the court’s order.

The Capital Citizens Council was among the segregationist organizations vocally opposed to integration. Such groups sought to influence public opinion with cartoons, pamphlets, and other propaganda that often employed racially charged or explicitly racist imagery and language. By invoking the “Tar Baby” folktale—where the more the character struggles, the more entangled he becomes—the cartoon attempts to show Eisenhower hopelessly “stuck” in the crisis while Faubus stays out of harm’s way.

Imagery, Language, and Symbolism

• “Tar Baby” as a Racist Trope
  In the original Uncle Remus story, the “Tar Baby” is a figure crafted from tar to ensnare Brer Rabbit. Here, it stands in for federally enforced desegregation—or more specifically, the African American students themselves—implying that Eisenhower is being trapped by civil rights obligations he “can’t escape.”
• “Brer Ike” and ‘Help!’
  President Eisenhower is portrayed as desperately calling for assistance: “Help! Somebody! Anybody! Halp!” The mocking tone suggests that integration is an unwinnable conflict for him.
• Governor Faubus Observing
  Faubus’s passive posture—“hands behind his back”—implies he is letting Ike wrestle with the dilemma, either feigning innocence or discreetly relishing the President’s predicament.
• “Brownell” with a Shotgun
  Depicting the U.S. Attorney General armed reflects the broader Southern resentment of federal intervention. Brownell played a key role in supporting civil rights cases, thus being cast in the cartoon as an aggressor intruding on states’ rights.

Cartoon’s Strategy and Impact

As propaganda, the cartoon aims to solidify white segregationist unity by mocking federal enforcement of integration. It leverages an easily recognizable folklore reference—intentionally racializing the “Tar Baby”—to stir sentiments that black students’ presence in white schools would only “entangle” the federal government. It was part of a broader push to maintain Jim Crow by framing the federal government as overreaching and burdened by a problem of its own making.

Such material contributed to the polarizing atmosphere of the era. While it resonated with staunch segregationists, it also underscored the depth of racism and the lengths to which organizations would go to resist desegregation.

The Councils worked to oppose voter registration efforts in the South (where most African Americans had been disenfranchised since the late 19th century) and integration of public facilities in general during the 1950s and 1960s. Members employed tactics such as economic boycotts, unjustified termination of employment, propaganda, and outright violence. By the 1970s the influence of the Councils had waned considerably due to the passage of federal civil rights legislation. Learn more at Wikipedia>>

In hindsight, cartoons like this highlight the viciousness and vehemence that defined the white resistance to the civil rights movement.

The Museum of Protest includes this content because it provides context to the civil rights movement and contributes to a general understanding of organizing tactics and messaging. Visit our Principles to understand what we include in our collection and why.

Special thanks to the USC Digital Imaging Lab for their support in digitizing this item.