This was a civil rights case brought under 42 USC Sec. 1983 in the early 1960s by two African American inmates at Lorton Reformatory, a correctional institution operated by the District of Columbia, charging that they had been discriminated against in housing assignments. The inmates had been assigned to dormitories housing only African American inmates. Their requests for transfer to other housing had been denied. Some dormitories were integrated, while others were segregated. The court addressed the question of whether racially-based housing assignments in prisons are illegal race discrimination. Noting that the law allowed for delay in total integration for compelling circumstances, the District Court (Judge Luther Wallace Youngdahl) concluded that proof of a racial imbalance in the dormitories was not sufficient to justify relief for the inmates where the court found that full integration would jeopardize the safety of the prison due to racial friction, particularly between black Muslims and white inmates, including white supremacist groups. Edwards v. Sard, 250 F.Supp. 977 (1966). We have no further information about this case. Westlaw had no direct history of the case. A PACER search similarly found no information on the case.

Denise Lieberman - 10/17/2005


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