## Facts

- A. O. Bacon’s 1911 will devised land to the City of Macon in trust to operate a public park (“Baconsfield”) “for the exclusive use of white people.”
- The City operated the park on a segregated basis for many years.
- After constitutional developments requiring desegregation of public facilities, the segregated use restriction became unlawful, and the City resigned as trustee.
- Bacon’s heirs sought a declaration that the trust had failed and that the property reverted to them.
- African American residents of Macon, including Reverend E. S. Evans, intervened and sought continuation of the park for the public on a nondiscriminatory basis through appointment of suitable trustees and application of cy pres.

## Issues

1. Under Georgia trust and wills law, whether a charitable trust limited to operation of a whites-only park fails when that purpose becomes illegal and impossible, and whether cy pres may be applied to continue the park on an integrated basis.
2. If the trust fails and the property reverts to the heirs, whether the state court’s decree constitutes state action denying equal protection to African American citizens.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed summary judgment terminating the trust.
- The court found the trust’s sole purpose was operation of a park exclusively for white people and that this purpose had become illegal and impossible to perform.
- The court held cy pres was unavailable because the racial limitation was essential and inseparable from the testator’s intent, leaving no general charitable purpose that could support substitution of an integrated park.
- The court held the trust failed and title reverted to Bacon’s heirs under Georgia law.

## Legal Principles

- A charitable trust terminates under Georgia law when its specific purpose becomes unlawful and impossible to carry out.
- Cy pres does not permit a court to substitute a different charitable scheme when the settlor’s intent is limited to a particular purpose and that purpose is essential to the gift.
- When a charitable trust fails for impossibility and cy pres is inapplicable, the property may revert to the settlor’s heirs under state reversionary rules.
- A state court’s neutral application of generally applicable trust and will-construction principles, leading to termination of a discriminatory charitable trust rather than its continuation, does not itself establish an equal protection violation merely because the public benefit ends.

## Conclusion

The Georgia Supreme Court concluded that a testamentary trust creating a whites-only public park could not be reformed into an integrated park because racial exclusivity was central to the donor’s intent; with the purpose rendered illegal, the trust failed and the property reverted to the donor’s heirs.


Evans v. Abney, 224 Ga. 826, 165 S.E.2d 160 (Ga. 1968)