I am always amazed-and depressed-to read about another example of race prejudice in the US. The lastest one is from a golf magazine; a sport of "gentlemen" I've been told. The first African American to win a "...championship conducted by the USGA" was Bill Wright in 1959. This article recounts the problems he and other black pro golfers faced playing this "gentlemen's game". In 1952 four black golfers-Joe Louis was one-and Charlie Sifford qualified to play in the Phoenix Open. The four were grouped together because none of the white players would play with them. The four teed off first and when they got to the first green they found "...that the cup had been filled with human excrement". Another incident involved Charlie Sifford, who in 1961 took the first round lead in the Greater Greensboro Open. On the second day he was followed by a "...drunken mob of a dozen young white men" who taunted him while swinging and placing beer cans around his golf ball. It took police 14 holes to remove the mob from the course. Wright recalls playing with white golfers "...who wouldn't shake your hand...".
It wasn't until 1961 that the PGA dropped their "caucasians only rule". I knew that baseball had a separate league for black ballplayers and this source says the UGA had one to for golfers. Wright recalls that he went to college at a small state school in Washington state and in the 1950's he remembered an incident where a group of African Americans were moving to Canada to "relocate" but were "...arrested in Bellingham for simply looking in shop windows". The article talks about death treats, locker rooms blacks couldn't use and golf balls being kicked onto the road by spectators. (Some say things have changed. But a protest arose when a black president wanted to give a graduation speech at a major US university and now his speech on the opening day of classes to the Virginia public school system is also being protested.)
Source: "Wright and Wronged" by Caryl Phillips. Golf Magazine Sept 2009)
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