A Young Negro Man and White Woman Denied Marriage License in Little Rock, Arkansas - LDF Files Suit

Press Release
September 10, 1968

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A Young Negro Man and White Woman Denied Marriage License in Little Rock, Arkansas - LDF Files Suit preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 5. A Young Negro Man and White Woman Denied Marriage License in Little Rock, Arkansas - LDF Files Suit, 1968. dbf2dbf0-b892-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b8616e6b-58b9-467f-bfee-56006f04152c/a-young-negro-man-and-white-woman-denied-marriage-license-in-little-rock-arkansas-ldf-files-suit. Accessed April 29, 2025.

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    September 10, 1968 

Interracial marriage 

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS--A young Negro man and white woman have been denied 

a marriage license here because Arkansas law states that "all marriages of 

white persons with Negroes or mulattos are declared to be illegal and void." 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) cooperating 

attorneys John Walker and Burl Rotenberry will file a suit on the couple's 

behalf in the U. S. District Court here Moniay, September 9. They will seek 

to have the state law declared unconstitutional and to have a court order 

the county clerk issue the couple a license. 

Twenty year-old Michael D. Higgins and 19 year-old Susan E. Lane 

applied for a license in Putlaski County and were told by the county clerk, 

R.S. "Bob" Peters that Arkansas law would not allow marriages between the 

races. 

When the couple reminded Peters of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling 

that interracial marriages could not be declared unlawful, he told them that 

he had read about the decision somewhere but had had no official word to change 

this action. He said until some official word was given he would not issue 

them a license. 

LDF attorney Rosenberry contacted Peters later and asked him to 

reconsider the matter. Peters refused on the same grounds, saying that he 

had had no word from state officials to act on any grounds other than the 



nineteen century law forbidding interracial marriage. 

Peters claimed that the matter made no difference to him one 

way or another. 

Release to: N.Y. Times - New York 

U.P.I. —- New York 

A.P. - New York

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