The Fake

To Northerners, the picture seemed natural enough: a well-dressed Negro with a woman and two children standing in front of a Little Rock high school holding up a large, neatly lettered sign that read:

PLEASE VOTE FOR INTEGRATION TO HELP US HAVE EQUALITY. But in the South that kind of picture is calculated only to whip up the fears that "equality" implies to segregationists.

And calculated it was. The picture was a fake, staged by a squat, bombastic Little Rock haberdasher named James ("Jimmy the Flash") Karam, the man who spurred on anti-Negro mobs for Governor Orval Faubus last fall (TIME, Oct. 7, 1957). Under Karam's direction, a taxicab deposited the Negroes, identified as James Howard and family, near the Hall High School at 8:40 on the morning of the balloting on the issue of segregated v. integrated schools.

Karam gave an order: "Get 'em over in front of the school." On hand were the United Press International's Charlie McCarty (TIME, Sept. 29), who had been tipped off about the story, and a photographer from the Faubus-fawning Arkansas Democrat. The two photographers needed only five minutes to get their pictures of the Negroes and their sign pleading for equality. "Let's get the hell out of here," barked Karam, and the Negroes hurried off in the cab.

By 11:30 a.m. the Democrat had the picture on the streets for voters to see as they headed for the polls. The Associated Press (which used the Democrat's shot) and the U.P.I, both moved the picture without a hint that it was staged. Unwarned, the New York Sunday News printed U.P.I.'s picture with a caption saluting the "eloquent look in the eyes" of the woman and boy. The moderate Arkansas Gazette later disclosed that the picture was staged, but by then the voting was over, and the segregationists had won (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

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