Court Opinion

ID: 9448599
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:41:05.198843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:30.110023
License: Public Domain

JONES, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring).
The City Commissioner who had been in charge of its golf courses testified that if its golf courses were operated without racial discrimination the play would fall off to an extent that there would be operational losses too great for the City to bear. If the City could not operate the courses on a non-segregated basis without losses too great to bear, it is not to be supposed that a private owner could profitably operate without discrimination, or that such an operator, who had made his purchase with little more than a token payment, could or would operate at a loss.
The City Commissioner’s testimony showed two purposes for the inclusion of the reverter clause in the deed, first to obtain the highest value for the property and second, to insure the citizens of Jacksonville of having golfing facilities. Since the City believed the golf courses could not be operated without losses on a non-segregated basis, and nothing appears to indicate that the purchasers could operate otherwise, it follows that the reverter clause was intended to insure the operation of the golf courses for the citizens of Jacksonville who are white to the exclusion of those who are colored. This, I think, is State action.