Sometime before May 23, 1967, an African-American juvenile and his mother filed a class action suit under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983 in the U.S. District Court for Arkansas against the Board of Managers for the Arkansas Training Schools for Boys and the juvenile court judges who assigned or sentenced juveniles to the training schools. The plaintiffs, who were represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, sought injunctive relief, alleging that the maintenance of segregated juvenile detention facilities violated due process and equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Pursuant to an Arkansas statute, black and white juveniles who were found to be either delinquent or dependent were assigned to different detention centers on the basis of their race. The District Court (Chief Judge Oren Harris) denied the defendants' motion to dismiss, but granted the defendants' motion for an interlocutory appeal. On May 23, 1967, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (Judge Donald Lay) declared the Arkansas statute unconstitutional to the extent that it required the segregation of juveniles solely on the basis of race, the commitment to segregated facilities, and the maintenance of segregated facilities. Bd. Of Managers Of the Ark. Training Sch. For Boys v. George, 377 F.2d 228 (8th Cir. 1967). The court went further to hold that no injunction was necessary at the time, but stated that race should not be a determinative factor under any circumstance. The Board of Managers was instructed to prepare a plan for the desegregation of the facilities and present it to the District Court for approval. Rehearing was denied on June 21, 1967. The Board of Managers petitioned for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied on October 9, 1967. Bd. of Managers Of Ark. Training Sch. For Boys v. George, 389 U.S. 345 (1967). We have no further information on this case.

Kristen Sagar - 10/27/2007


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