Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf

384 Pages·2017·7.58 MB·English

by  Lane Demas

Game of PrivileGe
The John hoPe Franklin Ser ieS in
African American History and Culture
Waldo E. Martin Jr. and Patricia Sullivan, editors
i v il
r e
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g

f e
o

e
An
m
AfricAn
a
g AmericAn
History of
Golf
Lane Demas
The Univ ersity of
North Car olina P ress
Chapel Hill
© 2017 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Set in Utopia and Aller types
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University of North Carolina Press has been a
member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Front cover photo of John Shippen, 1913, courtesy USGA Museum; back cover
photo courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Demas, Lane, author.
Title: Game of privilege : an African American history of golf / by Lane Demas.
Other titles: John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture.
Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2017] | Series:
The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2017009057 | iSBn 9781469634227 (cloth : alk. paper) |
iSBn 9781469634234 (ebook)
Subjects: lCSh: African American golfers—History. | African Americans—
Civil rights—History. | Golf—Social aspects—United States. | Golf—United
States—History. | Discrimination in sports—United States—History.
Classification: lCC Gv981 .D45 2017 | DDC 796.3520973—dc23
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017009057
For
Jennifer, Drexler,
Olivia, Mom, Dad,
and Frank
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations and Acronyms in the Text xvii
1 Real Demo CRaCy Is F ounD on the lInks
African Americans and the Origins of Golf in the United States 1
2 one heaRs o F negRo CountRy Clubs
Golfing the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance 40
3 ouR masteRs
The Development of the United Golfers Association 84
4 I W Ill take youR oWn golF stICk an D Wham the WoRlD
Golf and the Postwar Civil Rights Movement 141
5 guns In theIR golF bags
Black Power on the Links 188
6 thaI PeoPle Don’t get hate maIl
Race and Golf in the Age of Tiger Woods 237
Acknowledgments 271
Notes 273
Bibliography 321
Index 343
tables
1. Significant African American– Owned Golf Courses, 1916–1967 47
2. UGa National Championship Results, 1926–1975 89
3. Significant Golf Desegregation Lawsuits, 1941–1970 163
4. African Americans Competing on the PGa and lPGa Tours, 1960–2016 216
PReFaCe
December 24, 1955, was “a happy day in town for black folks,” recalled
Atlanta resident Gary Holmes. Twelve-y ear- old Gary’s father, Alfred
Holmes, and his grandfather, local physician Dr. Hamilton M. Holmes,
had recently prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court in Holmes v. Atlanta,
the first example of court- ordered desegregation in Georgia’s modern
history. Yet the excitement in the Holmes household and Atlanta’s black
community “was tempered by a fear of white retaliation” fueled by anony-
mous threatening calls and “talk . . . of a bloodbath or race war.”1
That tension centered not on racial segregation in Atlanta’s public
schools or voting booths but, rather, on its golf courses. Holmes v. Atlanta
had just forced the city to allow African Americans access to its public
links, particularly the historic Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course, and
some residents anticipated violence when blacks headed out on Christ-
mas Eve to test the ruling; rumors swirled that golfers of all races planned
to pack guns in their golf bags. “We understand how to play the game of
golf and understand the courtesies of the game,” seventy- one- year- old
Dr. Holmes told Time magazine the month before. “You can be sure we
will do what is right.”2
Holmes and Atlanta’s black golfers did just that, and their fight against
segregation in the seemingly staid world of middle- class leisure was
much more than a curious sidelight to the quest for civil rights in schools,
churches, and businesses. In fact, it was integrally tied to that narrative;
three weeks earlier Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. had launched
the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Six years later Gary’s brother, Hamilton E.
Holmes, became one of the first two black students to attend the Univer-
sity of Georgia.
This book explores the many black Americans who changed profes-
sional golf as well as the countless everyday black players—like those in
the Holmes family—who used the game and its symbolism to influence
their communities and assert their civil rights. Contrary to popular mem-
ory, African Americans played a significant role in shaping modern golf
from its origins in the late nineteenth century to today. Surprisingly, that
full story has yet to be written.
( ix