Conway was long the home of the late Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice James D. Johnson (1924– 2010), who ran unsuccessful races for governor in 1956 against incumbent Orval Eugene Faubus and in 1966 against the Republican Winthrop Rockefeller. Johnson, a leading segregation activist during the confrontation over integration at Little Rock Central High School, switched affiliation to the Republican Party in the 1980s, after the death of his nemesis Rockefeller. Johnson also lost a race in 1968 for the United States Senate against the incumbent James William Fulbright. His wife, the late Virginia Johnson (1928– 2007), ran for governor in 1968, while he was running for U.S. Senate.