## Facts

- Black and white Tennessee citizens sued state officials and public higher-education entities, challenging the construction and expansion of the University of Tennessee–Nashville Center (UT–N) as perpetuating segregated public higher education in Nashville.
- Tennessee State University (TSU) had been created by statute as a public institution for Black students; the court treated its segregated statutory origins as evidence of prior intentional discrimination.
- UT–N operated in the same city as TSU and remained predominantly white, with overlapping and competing offerings that affected enrollment choices.
- Earlier rulings declined to stop UT–N’s expansion but required defendants to develop and implement plans to dismantle the dual system and increase racial diversity at each institution.
- By the mid-1970s, TSU’s student body was about 85% Black, while UT–N’s Black enrollment was about 12.7%, indicating continued racial identifiability.
- Defendants implemented “joint and cooperative programs” between UT–N and TSU, but the evidentiary record showed these measures produced no meaningful change in racial composition.
- After defendants sought summary judgment in 1976, the court held a month-long evidentiary hearing and reviewed extensive submissions on whether the State had met its constitutional obligations and what further relief was required.

## Issues

1. Whether Tennessee satisfied its affirmative duty under the Fourteenth Amendment to dismantle the de jure dual system of public higher education in Nashville.
2. Whether continued operation and expansion of UT–N, alongside maintaining TSU as a racially identifiable institution, unlawfully perpetuated segregation.
3. What remedial orders were necessary and permissible to eliminate the remaining effects of the dual system in Nashville’s public higher education.

## Decision

- The court denied defendants’ motions for summary judgment.
- The court found Tennessee had not dismantled the dual system in Nashville and that existing plans and cooperative programs were ineffective.
- The court concluded UT–N’s program growth and competition for white students impeded progress toward desegregation and contributed to maintaining racially identifiable institutions.
- The court ordered additional, comprehensive remedies aimed at restructuring missions and programs so TSU would become the principal public four-year institution in Nashville and UT–N’s competing role would be substantially limited or redirected.
- The court required continued planning, monitoring, and reporting to ensure that desegregation occurred in fact rather than on paper.

## Legal Principles

- A state that previously operated a de jure segregated system of public education has an affirmative constitutional duty to dismantle it completely, not merely to end formal racial classifications.
- Persistent racial identifiability in institutions within a formerly dual system can support a finding that unconstitutional vestiges remain, absent a sufficient showing that current patterns are not traceable to prior state-imposed segregation.
- Voluntary cooperation and nominal joint programs are insufficient if they do not produce meaningful progress toward a unitary system.
- Federal courts may impose structural, programmatic remedies in public higher education when necessary to eliminate the effects of past intentional discrimination, including measures that are explicitly targeted to cure segregation’s continuing effects.

## Conclusion

The court held that Tennessee’s measures had failed to dismantle the dual public higher-education structure in Nashville and that UT–N’s continued expansion obstructed desegregation; it denied summary judgment and ordered structural relief centered on making TSU the primary public four-year institution in the city, with ongoing judicial supervision to secure compliance with the Fourteenth Amendment.


Geier v. Blanton, 427 F. Supp. 644 (M.D. Tenn. 1977)