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Palmer V. Ferguson Case Brief

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In Palmer v. Thompson, 391 F.2d 324 (5th Cir. Miss. 1967), twelve Black American citizens living in Jackson, Mississippi, filed a suit on behalf of themselves and fellow Black American citizens seeking an injunction against the Mayor and Commissioners of Jackson, its Police Chief, and its Director of Recreation, alleging discriminatory conduct in the operation of the city’s swimming pools and jails. In 1963 the “City of Jackson closed all swimming pools which it owned and operated. From that time forward “no municipal swimming facilities were opened to any citizen of either race. And the city acknowledged that it did not intend to reopen or operate any of the swimming facilities on an integrated basis. The city contended that the racial integration of the pools would endanger personal safety of all citizens and would pose a problem for officials to maintain law and order. Additionally, the City of Jackson acknowledged having separate city jail facilities and accommodations for white and Black American prisoners, holding that the facilities were of equal quality but that the separation was …show more content…

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (U.S. 1896) gave states the legal right to require persons of different races to use separate but equal segregated facilities. But that ruling was struck down in the landmark case of Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (U.S. 1954), In that case the court held that separate but equal public schools based on race is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and is unconstitutional. In upholding that decision, Cooper v. Aaron held that state governments must comply with Supreme Court rulings and court orders based on the its interpretation of the

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