Yet, others who played important roles in ending segregation on the PGA tour have not yet had their due. The stories of neglected heroes such as Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes, and Charlie Sifford, as well as those who supported them, notably boxer Joe Louis and Los Angeles civil rights activist Maggie Hathaway, are now well told. Paul Open tournament.3 Hughes’s story reflects the bitter experiences of Spiller and Rhodes at California’s Minneapolis golf professional Solomon Hughes, a top player on the United Golfers’ Association (UGA) tour, did battle with the PGA when he attempted to enter the 1948 St.
Dodging and weaving, the PGA leadership remained obdurate to change until, finally, it could no longer escape the nation’s new legal and social reality.įollowing Tiger Woods’s stunning success as a professional golfer and his pointed reminders about the tough times African American golfers endured before him, sportswriters and historians have spotlighted the fight these golfers waged against the PGA’s racial restrictions in the 1940s and 1950s.
No matter that Jackie Robinson’s dramatic entry into major league baseball broke the color line in the national game. No matter that the civil rights movement surged to prominence in the 1950s, boldly attacking Jim Crow restrictions throughout the South.
Board of Education decision (1954) struck down segregation in public schools and gave impetus to court actions on segregation at community-owned and tax-supported golf courses. No matter that the Supreme Court’s Brown v. This clause, which resolutely excluded African Americans from participating in PGA sanctioned tournaments, shut out some of the best black golfers in our country from playing on that professional tour. It was not until 1961, that the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) removed the “Caucasian Only” clause from its bylaws. (UPDATED: OCTOBER 18, 2019)-Throughout a long history of racial discrimination and segregation in the United States, African Americans have continued to struggle for equality in this nation of plenty. Professional golfer Calvin Peete, the most successful African American to have played on the PGA Tour, with 12 wins, prior to the emergence of Tiger Woods.
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