New York, N.Y., June 24, 1958-- …

    , 

“PRESS RELEASE® e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TO COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. «© JUdson 6-8397 
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS op THURGOOD MARSHALL President Director-Counsel 

June 24, 1958 

NEW YORK, N. Y., June 24, 1958--"We will take every legal step to 

help get those kids back in Central High in September" Thurgood 

Marshall declared today following the filing of a motion with the 

Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to make ineffective the 

June 20th order of District Judge Harry J. Lemley, suspending inte- 

gration at the Little Rock High School. 

Judge Lemley yesterday denied a motion requesting him to stay 

his order suspending integration for 24 years. His order bars the 

remaining seven Negro students from attending Central High School 

next fall. The motion denied yesterday sought to permit the students 

to continue at the school until the suspension order could be heard 

by a higher court. 

Mr. Marshall and Wiley A. Branton, the other attorney for the 

Negro students, charged in their motion filed today that all of the 

evidence relied on by Judge Lemley in his June 20th order "is outside 

the scope of the matters which a trial judge may consider in school 

segregation cases," 

The Little Rock integration plan was adopted in 1955 and 

approved by the District Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals 

in 1956. The School Board sought suspension of it on February 20, 

1958. At the hearing June 3-5, Judge Lemley reserved ruling on the 

motion of the Negro students to dismiss the school plea and all other 

motions until his final decision, 

Following the ordering of the National Guard by Governor Orval 

E. Faubus last fall to prevent the Negro children from attending 

Central High School, Judge Ronald N. Davies ordered the School Board 

to proceed with integration "forthwith." On September 20, he pro- 

hibited interference and Governor Faubus withdrew the Guards. Federal 

troops were ordered to the school on September 23. 

Judge Lemley, in issuing his June 20 order, declared that the 

source of trouble at Central High "was deep-seated popular opposition 



in Little Rock to the principle of integration, which, as is known, 

EEO 

runs counter to the pattern of southern life which has existed over 

300 years." 

"The evidence also shows that to this opposition was added the 

conviction of many people of Little Rock that the Brown (United States 

Supreme Court May 17, 1954) decisions do not truly represent the law, 

and that by virtue of 1956-1957 enactments (Arkansas interposition 

pupil assignment plan). . .integration in the public schools could be 

lawfully avoided" the 74-year old jurist said in his order issued on 

Saturday. Attorneys for the Negro students contended that Judge 

Lemley should have continued rather than suspended the integration 

plan pending an appeal to the higher court. 

His "conclusions of the law" are contrary to the United States 

Supreme Court decisions in the School Segregation Cases, as well as 

decisions of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Marshall and 

Branton argued. 

It is difficult to imagine a more impressive case for continuing 

the status quo pending appeal than where the appeal is from an order 

of the District Judge which nullifies a previous decision of the 

court" the students' attorneys declared in their motion for the stay 

of the suspension order. 

In denying the motion to stay his June 20th order, Judge Lemley 

claimed that to grant it would, to a large extent, nullify "our order" 

as it would take months to carry the motion to appeal his order 

through the Court of Appeals into the United States Supreme Court. 

"Meanwhile", he said, "the situation at Central High which we 

consider intolerable to education, would continue." 

Failure to grant the stay would mean that the remaining seven 

Negro students who attend Central High, and other Negro children in 

the class represented by the suit "would suffer irreparable injury" 

in being denied a nonsegregated education as ordered by the District 

Court andthe Court of Appeals. 

Mr. Marshall who is Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, said that if the motion to stay Judge Lemley's 

order is denied by the Court of Appeals the case would then be taken 

to the United States Supreme Court. 

"We have no intention of letting those kids down" he said. "We 
will use every legal means to have them back at Central High in the 
fall.® - 30 -