The Supreme Court imposed a racially neutral principle to decide a question of the legitimacy of race-based restrictions on park land donated to a municipality.

Justice Hugo L. BlackBlack, Hugo L.;Evans v. Abney[Evans v. Abney] wrote the 6-2 majority opinion upholding a decision of a Georgia court that a park built on land donated to the city of Macon explicitly for use as a whites-only park had to be closed and the property returned to the heirs of the person donating the land. Previous decisions made it clear that Macon was barred on equal protection grounds from operating the park on a racially restrictive basis. Because the benefactor had been explicit in his instructions, the Court decided the only proper course of action was to return the land to the heirs. Although African Americans were still denied access to the park, so were whites, thus preserving racial neutrality. Justices William O. Douglas and William J. Brennan, Jr., dissented, and Thurgood Marshall did not participate.Restrictive covenants;Evans v. Abney[Evans v. Abney]

Fourteenth Amendment

Restrictive covenants

Shelley v. Kraemer

Takings clause