Pennsylvania v. Board of City Trusts
United States Supreme Court
353 U.S. 230 (1957)
Stephen Girard's 1831 will created a trust establishing a college for "poor white male orphans," administered since its 1848 opening by the Board of Directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia (defendant); in 1954, the Board rejected two Black applicants solely because of their race, prompting the rejected applicants to sue in state court for an injunction ordering their admission, joined by Pennsylvania (plaintiff) alleging a Fourteenth Amendment violation. Pennsylvania's state courts rejected the constitutional claim, and Pennsylvania petitioned for U.S. Supreme Court review.
Whether a board administering a private testamentary trust that racially excludes applicants from an educational institution violates the Fourteenth Amendment, given the board's status as a city agency.