Another Round in the Little Rock School Case Oct. 1
Press Release
September 24, 1959
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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Another Round in the Little Rock School Case Oct. 1, 1959. ebc7417b-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/904ee907-8bc4-40a6-82f1-2d973b74165a/another-round-in-the-little-rock-school-case-oct-1. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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PRESS RELEASE @
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE e
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS
President
JUdson 6-8397
THURGOOD MARSHALL
Director-Counsel
NEW YORK 19,N.Y. «
ANOTHER ROUND IN THE LITTLE ROCK
SCHOOL CASE OCT. 1
Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 24.--Another legal round in the Little
Rock school case comes up in the Federal District Court Thursday,
October 1 at Fort Smith, Ark.
It is a hearing on several motions filed on behalf of Negro
students in Little Rock. Among the motions is one challenging the
school board's action in rejecting Negro students who sought admission
to predominantly white high schools. Another seeks to substitute the
three new school board members in the suit in place of the three mem-
bers removed in a recall election last spring. A third asks the
court's permission to add 14 additional Negro students as parties in
the case.
The Little Rock case began in February 1956. The court approved
in August 1956 the school board's plan which called for complete
desegregation of the city's school system in three phases. The first
phase was to begin at the high school level in September 1957. The
second phase called for desegregation of the junior high schools two
or three years later, and the third phase provided that elementary
desegregation be completed by 1963. Since the filing of the case,
there have been more than three dozen hearings in various federal
courts, including the U. S, Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the Negro students have been successful in prevent~
ing the school authorities from leasing public school buildings to a
private corporation established to operate all-white schools. In
June 1959, a special three-judge District Court ruled the school clos-
ing laws, sponsored by Gov. Faubus, invalid. The Governor's attorneys
have indicated that they will appeal this ruling directly to the U. S.
Supreme Court.
Attorneys for the Negro students are Thurgood Marshall, director-
counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, of New York
City, and Wiley A. Branton of Pine Bluff, Ark.
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