U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Segregation in Macon Park

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 42958fa1-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 3. U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Segregation in Macon Park, 1966. 42958fa1-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/67aac9ed-10ad-42fb-b8ee-6eed7494b092/us-supreme-court-blocks-segregation-in-macon-park. Accessed May 16, 2025.

Copied!

    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
Presiden f oy 
ie (Allan Knight Chalmers Wochesdcg RELEASE 

ae ? 

January 19, 1966 Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 

U.S. SUPREME COURT BLOCKS 
SEGREGATION IN MACON PARK 

WASHINGTON----The U. S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the city 

of Macon, Ga., could not resign as a trustee of a park to avoid 

desegregating the facility. 

Acting on an appeal brought by the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund in behalf of six Macon Negroes, the high court 

was divided, 6-3. 

The park, known as Baconsfield, was established in 1911 by 

‘he will of the late Georgia Senator Augustus Octavius Bacon as 

a park for white women and children only. 

The Macon case bears a strong similarity to a situation in 

Philadelphia, Pa., where Girard College was established by an old 

will as a school for white orphan boys. 

Legal Defense Fund Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, who argued 

the Macon case, said he "hopes the decision will lead to speedy 

desegregation of Girard College." 

Sen. Bacon's will directed perpetual ownership of the land 

by the city, and established a trust fund for maintenance of the 

park. 

However, Negroes began using the facility in 1963 after court 

decisions had made it apparent that the city could not operate a 

segregated park, 

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the city's right to resign 

as trustees of the park after individual members of the park's 

Board of Managers brought state court action to enforce the 

segregationist provisions of the will. 

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision reversed the state court 

ruling. 

The majority opinion said that the city had operated the park 
for so many years that it had "momentum as a public facility." 

Mere substitution of private trustees does not free it from 
the constitutional restrictions against segregation by cities, the 
court held. 30 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Sse

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Segregation in Macon Park

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in