Plaintiffs, including white, black, former, present, and prospective inmates in all Georgia penal institutions, challenged the constitutionality of segregation in Georgia jails. In July 1968, a three-judge panel in the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Judges Sidney Smith, Frank Hooper, and Elbert Tuttle) certified plaintiffs' class, held that any segregated custody subsequent to January 1, 1969 is unconstitutional, and ordered the Director of the Board of Corrections and all wardens and sheriffs to desegregate all Georgia penal institutions. Wilson v. Kelley, 294 F. Supp. 1005 (N.D. Ga. 1968). In December 1968, the Supreme Court affirmed the District Court's decision in a per curium opinion. Wilson v. Kelley, 393 U.S. 266 (1968). This case (like others, see Wilson v. Thompson, JC-GA-012) concerned implementation of the Wilson v. Kelley order against the Bibb County Jail. The court transferred the case to the Middle District of Georgia in 1973. Some type of action continued in this case until about 1975, and in 1976, the district court issued an order to close the case for statistical purposes due to a lack of action. There is no PACER docket available for this case, but we do have a copy of the original docket from the District Court in the Middle District of Georgia that contains limited information from 1973 through 1976.

Lauren Cutson - 05/21/2005


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