Little Rock Six Stay Order Goes to Supreme Court

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- eb84315d-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Little Rock Six Stay Order Goes to Supreme Court, 1958. eb84315d-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/59e8a80a-7440-4e38-9211-a5b38d58416d/little-rock-six-stay-order-goes-to-supreme-court. Accessed October 30, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS oa THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

LITTLE ROCK STAY ORDER 
GOES TO SUPREME COURT August 22, 1958 

WASH., D.C., Aug. 22,--Attorneys for the Little Rock Negro 

students appealed today directly to the U. S. Supreme Court to over- 

turn the stay order of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday 

and signed by Chief Judge Archibald K, Gardner. 

Thurgood Marshall, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, filed a motion with Associate Justice Charles 

Evans Whittaker asking that the stay order granting the Little Rock 

School Board a 30-day delay be voided so that the Negro students can 

return to Central High when it opens September 2. 

The Supreme Court is now in recess, but the rules of the Court 

empower a single justice to vacate a stay issued by a lower court. 

In this instance, it is Associate Justice Whittaker, who is also the 

Circuit Justice for the Eighth Circuit, 

In a 6-1 decision rendered August 18, the Eighth Circuit had 

set aside Judge Harry J. Lemley's order of June 21 postponing inte- 

gration of the Little Rock High School for 23 years. 

In its decision the Court declared that "the time has not yet 

come in these United States when an order of a Federal Gourt must be 

whittled away, watered down, or shamefully withdrawn in the face of 

violent and unlawful acts of individual citizens in opposition 

threats." Judge Gardner was the lone dissenter. 

The Little Rock School Board on Thuwsday petitioned Judge 

Gardner to stay the decision. The stay order granted carries the 

provision that if within 30 days the Court receives notice from the 

Clerk of the Supreme Court of application filed by the School Board 

seeking an apeal of the decision setting aside Judge Lemley's post- 

ponement mandate, the stay will be in effect until the Supreme Court 

acts on it. 



ce @ @ 

Attorneys for the Negro students had petitioned the Eighth 

Circuit the previous day esking that the mandate on the August 18th 

decision be issued immediately instead of the customary 20 days. 

This would enable the Negro students to return to Central High when 

it opens in two weeks. The motion was denied at the same time tho 

School Board's petition for the stay was granted. 

The motion filed today with Justice Whittaker by Mr. Marshall 

asked the Supreme Court to vacate the stay order on grounds that 

while the Eighth Circuit affirmed the rights of the Negro children to 

continue attending Central High the order prevents them from returning 

on September 2, 

The lawyers reminded the Court that when it denied their June 26 

petition which sought to have Judge Lemley's postponement order set 

aside, the high Court had asserted, "We have no doubt that the Court 

of Appeals will recognize the vital importance of the time element in 

this litigation, and that it will act upon the application for a stay 

or appeal in ample time to permit arrangements to be made for the next 

school year." 

The attorneys contend that in the present position of the legal 

proceedings, despite the opinion of the Court of Appeals affirming the 

rights of the Negro children to continue in nonsegregated schools, 

the students will be relegated back to segregated schools for at least 

a year. The stay has, in effect, accomplished the suspension of 

desegregation which the School Board originally sought, the attorneys 

elaim, 

If the stay order is permitted to stand and Judge Lemley's order 

remains in force, the rights of the Negro children will be "effsc- 

tively destroyed," the damage will be irreparable and the order of a 

Federal Court will in fact "be whittled away." 

In addition to Mr. Marshall, Attorney Wiley Branton of Pine 

Bluff, Arkansas represents the Negro children. Assisting in the case 

are Jack Greenberg, Irma Robbins Feder and William Taylor, all of the 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund staff in New York, 

305

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Little Rock Six Stay Order Goes to Supreme Court

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