Crow v. Brown, 71-3466

• Decision Date: 15 March 1972
• Docket Number: 71-3467.,No. 71-3466,71-3466
• Citation: 457 F.2d 788
• Parties: Trammell CROW and Albert Susman, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charlie BROWN et al., Defendants-Appellants, and United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, George Romney, etc., et al., Defendants, The Ervin Company, Intervenor-Appellee, Samuel Carr and Hattie Mae Calhoun, Plaintiff-Intervenors-Appellees. Samuel CARR and Hattie Mae Calhoun, etc., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charlie BROWN et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

457 F.2d 788 (1972)

Trammell CROW and Albert Susman, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charlie BROWN et al., Defendants-Appellants, and United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, George Romney, etc., et al., Defendants, The Ervin Company, Intervenor-Appellee, Samuel Carr and Hattie Mae Calhoun, Plaintiff-Intervenors-Appellees.

Samuel CARR and Hattie Mae Calhoun, etc., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charlie BROWN et al., Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 71-3466, 71-3467.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 15, 1972.

Robert G. Young, Atlanta, Ga., for Charlie Brown and others.

John W. Stokes, Jr., U. S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for H.U.D. and Romney.

King & Spalding, Atlanta, Ga., for Persells.

Moreton Rolleston, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for Crow & Susman.

Ralph H. Witt, Hoke Smith, Atlanta, Ga., for Ervin Co.

Henry L. Bowden, John R. Myer, Robert B. Newman, Atlanta, Ga., for Carr and Calhoun.

Jack H. Watson, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for The City of Atlanta.

Before WISDOM, GODBOLD and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

The district court accurately and succinctly stated the issue in these consolidated cases:

The broad issue raised by these plaintiffs here . . . is whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the County defendants from exercising whatever discretion allowed by municipal law for the avowed purpose of excluding low-income blacks from apartments proposed for construction on land zoned for apartments.

Crow v. Brown, N.D.Ga.1971, 332 F. Supp. 382, 393. The district court found:

While poor blacks have been attracted to the low-rent public housing in Atlanta and the city\'s problems have rapidly mounted, whites have been fleeing in increasing numbers. In 1960 35% of the residents of Atlanta were black; today 51% are black. The public school population of Atlanta was 30% black; today it is 70% black. A fair percentage of the whites leaving Atlanta have moved to the unincorporated areas of Fulton County; a similar percentage of blacks from those areas have moved to the city.

Within the immediate future, unless drastic changes occur, it is not merely possible but certain that Atlanta will become, in essence, a black city with a solid white perimeter. These two lawsuits, though analytically different, have been consolidated by this court because together they involve a plan to prevent this from happening to Atlanta by having some low-rent public housing built in unincorporated Fulton County. Some may say that this plan is unwise or that it may not succeed. It is not for this court to make such a determination. Unquestionably the design of the plan is to alleviate to some degree the crisis now at hand in Atlanta, and the goal of the plan is to preserve Atlanta\'s future as a city in which both whites and blacks may live.

The plaintiffs, Crow and Susman, and plaintiff-intervenor Ervin Company own tracts of land in an unincorporated area of Fulton County, Georgia. They propose to build low-rent public housing on their land some distance away from the racially concentrated areas of Fulton County. They have been frustrated in their efforts by the refusal of Fulton County officials...