In Evans v. Abney, the U.S Supreme Court was faced with a case concerning racial discrimination in public facilities. The issue arose from Senator Augustus O. Bacon's will which left a park to the city of Macon, Georgia under the condition that it be used only by white people. When this racially discriminatory policy was challenged and found unconstitutional, instead of integrating the park, its trustees decided to close it entirely arguing that they were upholding Bacon’s will as closely as possible given legal constraints on segregation. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Abney et al., stating that while desegregation is constitutionally required, private intentions must also be respected even if those intentions involve racial discrimination - thus allowing for closure rather than integration of such spaces when stipulated by original donors' intent.

In the dissenting opinion for Evans et al. v. Abney et al., Justice William O. Douglas argued that Senator Augustus Octavius Bacon's will, which established a trust to create and maintain a park "for white people only," was discriminatory and unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S Constitution, regardless of his private biases or intentions. He contended that when public officials took over management of this trust, it became an instrumentality of the state; thus subject to constitutional limitations against racial discrimination in public facilities. Furthermore, he believed that if such trusts were allowed to continue operating with racially restrictive covenants then they would serve as loopholes for segregationists seeking ways around civil rights laws and court rulings banning racial segregation in public places.