This class action civil rights pro se lawsuit was filed on February 2, 1968 against the Virginia prison system, alleging unlawful racial segregation of inmates and general unconstitutional conditions of confinement.

Our information in this case is limited to the typed docket for the U.S. District Court in Virginia, which is somewhat difficult to read.

According to the docket, the District Court initially entered a TRO, prohibiting the defendants from the following: denying inmate access to attorneys; using instruments against inmates to cause physical pain, except in situations of self defense; using tear gas except in extreme circumstances; denying mattresses and bedding to inmates; denying access to the courts and using solitary confinement in a manner that would cause inmates mental or physical harm.

A trial on the matter commenced in December of 1968 and continued into 1969. The District Court separated the claims of general prisoner mistreatment from the segregation claims. On October 16, 1969, the District Court entered an order and injunction calling for defendants to desegregate the Virginia prison system and to report to the Court as to their efforts to do so. It appears that following that order, memorandums were filed with the Court detailing the status of compliance with the desegregation order.

On July 19, 1974, the District Court ordered that the case be dismissed.

We have no further information on this matter.

Dan Dalton - 02/17/2007


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