THE GOLF INTEGRATION MOVEMENT
The Royal Golf & Wake-Robin Clubs & the Integration Movement
In the 1940's, members of the Royal and Wake Robin golf clubs brought the fight for equal access to the public golf courses. Their actions were among the earliest to spark a large and growing movement against Jim Crow segregation in the 1940s and 1950s. Filing a lawsuit and waiting for the courts to force integration was the expected strategy at the time. Washington, DC's black golf clubs decided on a different course of action. On June 29, 1941, Asa Williams, George Williams and Cecil R. Shamwell arrived at the East Potomac Golf Course to play a round of 18 holes. These African American golfers were members of the Royal Golf Club. They were told that "colored persons are not allowed to play at the East Potomac Course and began to play, accompanied by park police officers.
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Looking forward to inviting the United Golfers Association to bring the national tournament to Washington, DC in 1942, the Royal Golf Club, together with its sister organization--Wake Robin Golf Club, launched a major effort in attempting to bring about integration of these golf courses. Some of the efforts were not received very graciously by many of the whites, who frequently played these courses. Just about every trick in the book was used to prevent this from happening, including a bit of violence.
The break came when the National Capitol Parks, a part of the Interior Department, which at the tie was headed by Secretary Harold Ickes. He authorized the use of the Anacostia Golf Course to stage the U.G.A. National tournament. With this great undertaking behind them, the integration program became a bit smoother. Within the next two years, all of the public courses were being used. This did not end the hostility. Although on several occasions open resentment was encountered, no further incidents took place (at least that were recorded) but ugly remarks were heard quite often.
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The Royal Golf Club sponsored an annual Amateur Tournament and set the pattern for golf activities at the golf course. In addition, the club became the spearhead to increase golfing activities by pointing out the inadequacies of the Lincoln Memorial Course. After continuous effort, a tentative layout on the present site of Langston was offered. However, considerably more pressure was necessary before the Langston Golf Course was opened.
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After the official desegregation of public golf courses, African Americans still faced intimidation when they tried to play. A couple of weeks later, a fight broke out at the East Potomac Park Golf Course when African American golfers sought shelter from a torrential rainstorm in the field house.
In September, the Afro-American wrote that "White hoodlums, resenting the appearance of colored players on the hitherto lily-white courses, have been making things uncomfortable for adventuresome golfers; effecting malicious little triflings [sic], like filling carburetors with sand, deflating tires, removing spark plugs and other such things while the owners were out on the course."
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A year later, in July 1942 at the Anacostia Golf Course, women from the Wake Robin Golf Club were harassed by a white crowd, who reportedly picked up the golfers’ balls to prevent them from playing and drove them from the course with sticks, stones, and abusive language.
One way African American golfers hoped to show their right to play was to hold the 1942 United Golfers Association (UGA) tournament, known as the "Negro National Open," on one of Washington, DC's, public courses. Dr. Edgar Brown wanted to "fashion a decree from the Department of the Interior...providing one of the swank courses, now used by white people, for the event."
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Under pressure from white organizations, the UGA canceled the tournament. The Wake Robin and Royal Golf Clubs were undeterred.
