Evans v. Abney

Background

In 1911 Senator Augustus O. Bacon left Baconsfield to the City of Macon as a public park "for white people only." The city operated and improved the park for decades. After this Court held the park could not remain segregated (Evans v. Newton, 1966), Georgia courts concluded the racial purpose was impossible and ruled the charitable trust had failed, returning the land to the Senator’s heirs. Black citizens of Macon who had sought integration challenged that reversion as violating the Fourteenth Amendment.

Reasoning

The key question was whether Georgia courts, applying state trust law and the cy pres rules, violated equal protection or due process by letting the trust fail rather than rewriting the will to remove its racial terms. The Court held the Georgia courts simply applied neutral state law to determine the testator’s intent. Bacon’s will, the Court said, showed a specific, essential racial purpose, so cy pres could not be used to rewrite the trust. Because state trust rules required reversion in that situation, the Court affirmed the state judgment.

Real world impact

The decision means the park property reverted to heirs rather than being preserved and opened by court order. That outcome removes the donated park from public use and illustrates that strong testamentary intent can defeat court efforts to reform charitable gifts when state law bars cy pres relief. The opinion also emphasizes that states decide how and when to apply cy pres under their own trust rules.

Dissents or concurrances

Justices Douglas and Brennan dissented: Douglas argued cy pres could better preserve a municipal use and that reversion penalized compliance with the Constitution; Brennan argued state action made the reversion an unconstitutional closure of a public facility.