WEBVTT - Fried Egg Stories: Jackie Robinson the Golfer 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:03.160 This episode of Frida Egg Stories is brought to you 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.440 by the US Open Victory Club. So to celebrate the 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.680 upcoming US Open Week, the Victory Club has teamed up 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.720 with the Frida Egg to give away four ticket packages. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.320 Each of these has two tickets for Saturday and Sunday 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:18.520 at the one hundred and twenty first US Open at 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.840 Tory Pines in twenty twenty one. The Victory Club is 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.520 the official fan club for US Open fans. Membership is 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.319 free again free, and you'll get access to exclusive US 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.760 Open content, virtual fan experiences, offers and discounts, and events 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.879 at the championship and throughout the year. So to enter 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.600 the sweepsticks, join the Victory Club at Usopen dot com 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.800 slash Victory Club, complete your profile and answer podcast to 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.680 the question how did you hear about the Victory Club? Again? 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:53.360 That's Usopen dot Com slash Victory Club. The Frida Egg 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.760 requires a different technique. What you need to do is 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.960 actually square the face so it'll dig down under now 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.360 that bad lie and propel that ball right out onto 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:03.680 the green. 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:05.200 Here's the thing. 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.760 Playing out of a buried lion of bunker is completely 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.200 different than playing out of a night and clean lion 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:11.240 of Greenside Bunker. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:12.760 You need to be. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.800 Aggressive on any show. Weather it's sitting cleanly for its 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:16.600 Friday egg. 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.600 Well, we've all faced it, the dreaded Frida egg. Not 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:22.800 to be feared though, it's actually a pretty easy shot 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:23.120 to hit. 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.280 Today, my guest will be Tommy Armour, the Silver Scott, 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.679 one of the finest playing golf prolls of all times. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.320 That's the voice of Jackie Robinson. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.000 Tommy Armour and I will begin our conversation right after 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:44.360 this important message. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.320 It's about nineteen fifty eight nineteen fifty nine, a couple 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.280 of years after Robinson retired from Major League Baseball, and 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.480 he has a radio show called Jackie Robinson's Sports Shots. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:59.000 He interviewed famous sporting personalities and that included Tommy Armour everyone. 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.720 Rosemary Marrivet's is the one who told me about these clips. 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:07.280 My name is Rosemary Maraboth. I'm the curator of collections 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:09.640 with the usg Golf Museum. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.000 The audio from Jackie Robinson's Sports Shops is in the 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.360 United States Golf Association's archives. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.480 But my son is twelve years of age now and 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.400 he is beginning to take an interest in the game 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.280 now My question to you is, should I, as a 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.679 average golf for eighty high seventies, go out and tell 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:28.560 my son how to hit the ball or should he 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:30.800 go to a pro for lessons to start out? 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.200 You know, it was a very conversational kind of a segment, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:41.880 very reminiscent of podcasts. The format was very accessible. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.760 Don't try, Jack, it's not the deal. You're a terrific 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.360 baseball player, remember that. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:50.240 Uh huh. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.120 Now you're in the golf gate, all right. You know 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:57.040 a little about golf, just a little. You play well, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.760 But when you get there and try to teach children 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:04.320 the simple thing of golf, I don't know if you 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.360 know them when you're. 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.519 In many ways, the conversation between Robinson and Armor is unremarkable. 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.640 Robinson asks about Armor's career, about swing technique, and about 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:15.960 what makes a golf champion. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:18.960 Quite a question, Jack, But in a. 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:23.120 Few unspoken ways, it is remarkable. For one thing, this 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.560 is the late fifties and here are two men, one 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.720 of them black, the other white, speaking in the friendliest 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.000 and most natural way. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.800 And it was really fun to sort of hear this 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:35.000 mutual admiration. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.360 And for another, you can just tell how much of 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.120 a golf tragic, Jackie Robinson really. 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:42.840 Is You didn't know that, did you? 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:42.920 No? 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:44.160 Gay Oh? 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.920 Yes, to give it up, jack Oh, I love it 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.120 too much. It's a great game. And then you're telling 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:49.720 me that. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.440 It just sounds like to people that are interested in 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.840 golf having a very normal conversation. They happen to be 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.560 incredible athletes. But what's bringing them together as kind of 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:02.640 a very simple concept. 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:10.520 This is Friday's Stories. I'm Garrett Morrison. In this episode, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.400 we explore Jackie Robinson's life in golf. Now you're probably 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.159 familiar with how Robinson desegregated Major League Baseball, how in 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.960 nineteen forty seven he became the first black man to 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.160 play in the MLB in the twentieth century, and how 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.680 he confronted racism with strength and grace. In American culture, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.240 his story has taken on the weight of a heroic myth, 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.279 a myth that happens to be true. What's less known 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.960 is that the baseball diamond is not the only playing 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.960 field where Jackie Robinson advocated for equality. He also did 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.279 so on the golf course, and in golf he saw 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.880 a sport that was even more racially segregated than baseball, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:54.039 a sport where true integration seemed even more elusive. I'll 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.760 admit it, before I started working on this episode, I 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.640 didn't know that Jackie Robinson had such a passion for golf. 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:01.960 Just doesn't tend to come up in the mainstream books 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.640 and documentaries about him. And I think I have an 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.799 idea why. You see, we're accustomed to thinking of Jackie 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.640 Robinson as a triumphant figure, as we should, but the 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.600 story of his efforts to change golf is complicated in 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:20.240 some ways. It's sad, even inconvenient, And those are the 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:32.400 exact reasons I think it's important to tell this story today. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:38.960 Robinson grew up in Pasadena, in southern California, where golf 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.360 was popular. There were there are a number of golf courses. 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.760 This is Lane DMUs all right, tryg and Garrett. 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:45.880 Hey, can you hear me? 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:47.120 Yeah, you can hear it? 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.640 Perfect, Okay, excellent. He's a history professor at Central Michigan University. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:53.840 I'm the author of the book Game of Privilege and 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.799 African American History of Golf. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.719 In researching his book, Lane came across a number of 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.920 tidbits about Jackie Robinson's early experiences in golf. 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.600 There's a story that he used to sneak on to 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.159 the local private courses and find balls and sell golf 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:09.600 balls back to the golfers. 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.800 Later, around the time Robinson arrived at UCLA in the 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.760 late nineteen thirties, he took up the game properly. 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:20.080 There's a story that he basically borrowed a friends clubs 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.000 and played for the first time on borrowed clubs and 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:24.720 broke a hundred shot ninety nine. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:26.560 That just doesn't seem fair, does it. 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.240 And then it's clear that he got a chance to 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.360 play more in college and eventually he's apparently shooting in 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:39.279 the mid eighties, winning sort of Pacific Coast League golf tournaments. 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.040 That's not too surprising in the sense of if anybody 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.760 knows Jackie Robinson's college career, I mean, it's arguably the 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.640 most well rounded, incredible college athlete of all time. I 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.840 mean almost every sport he got involved in. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.440 He excelled at football, basketball, track. 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.120 And arguably baseball was probably his worst sport in college. 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.760 But baseball turned out to be his future. In nineteen 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.440 forty seven, Robinson was called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.240 and wearing number forty two on his back, he broke 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.200 the MLB's sixty three year color line. Meanwhile, his love 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.000 for golf continued to grow. 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.320 When he integrates Major League Baseball, he says that golf 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.000 is his favorite hobby. He tells the press that he 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.480 plays sometimes with other Brooklyn Dodgers and in fact that 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.800 this was a nice way to sort of overcome sort 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.440 of the tension amongst white baseball players of having a 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.080 black teammate and all these things that they apparently played 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:33.920 some golf on the side. 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.880 Robinson also plays with fellow African American celebrities, including Joe Lewis, 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.000 the famous boxer and former heavyweight champion of the World 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.400 and an avid golfer. Like Joe Lewis, Robinson takes an 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.760 interest in the professional game, specifically in the efforts of 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.360 black pro golfers to break their sports color line, golfers 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.160 like Bill Spiller. In nineteen fifty two, the PDA of 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:01.240 America bars Bill Spiller from the San Diego Open, and Robinson, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.280 at the height of his baseball career, goes to bat. 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.520 For him, Robinson saying, you know, golf is the most 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.119 racist of the sports that's left out there. We've got 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.160 to get more black golfers into these events. 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.000 And after he retires from the MLB in nineteen fifty six, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.640 he goes on NBC's Meet the Press. 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.240 And talks about golf again and says, golf is the 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.920 last sport. You know, every other sport black people have 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:25.840 broken into, not golf. 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.680 So golf is not only a passion for Jackie Robinson, 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:31.440 but also a cause. 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:33.000 Sometimes we don't. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.920 Well, what's the first thing then that a kid should know? 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.880 Principle, Take your boy, Yeah, right, twelve years of age. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.800 Stock your boy like you. Yes he is. You're not 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.480 a boy? No, no, no, get him a good set 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:48.880 of clapse. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.080 Okay, let's go back a few steps here. Segregation in 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.800 American golf was there from the beginning. After all, the 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.559 game became popular in the US in the eighteen nineties, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.679 which historians now see as the start of what's called 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:06.960 the Jim Crow Era. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.679 The starting point that is commonly used for the Jim 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:17.040 Crow Era is the Supreme Court's ruling in the eighteen 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.239 ninety six case of Plessy versus Ferguson. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.680 That's Marvin Dawkins, a professor of history at the University 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.720 of Miami and the author of the book African American 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.280 Golfers during the Jim Crow era and. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:35.679 When Pless Versus Ferguson was passed, which essentially legalized segregation. 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.640 That is often used as a marker or the rise 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:40.679 of Jim Croism. 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.080 Jim Crow laws were essentially updated versions of the old 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:45.319 slave codes. 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:50.439 And the slave codes regulated every aspect of life for slaves, 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.400 prevented them from marriage, prevented them from being taught, that 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:55.400 is literacy. 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.760 Scratch out slaves, scribbling black people, and you have this new, 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:01.200 yet familiar system. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.720 It was really designed to make it clear that these 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:11.680 people are not to be respected, these people are second class, 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:16.440 these people are to be regulated. And there were laws 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:22.560 that clearly provided advantages privileges for whites at these basive blacks. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.920 So how did this system manifest itself in the golf world. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.120 Well, that's where you get me at, Joe. 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.320 Basically, Jim Crow structured golf from top to bottom. Courses 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.840 were segregated, tournaments were segregated, and the various professions of 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:42.880 golf firmly segregated. 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:49.079 Clearly, the understanding when the PGA was founded in nineteen 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.840 sixteen was that black people were not welcome. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.120 It's sort of an unspoken racial barrier that's very common 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.320 in society, but basically it's real. It's codified, but not 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:02.559 in the writing. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:06.120 This unwritten prohibition was put to the test in nineteen 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.000 twenty eight when a black man applied for membership in 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.120 the Professional Golf Association of America. 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.400 The guy that tried to join his faskin he was 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.480 someone who may have been able to pass for whites. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:22.080 His name was Dewey Brown. Dewey Brown just sent in 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:26.680 his membership fees. They sent him a membership back. Dewey 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.360 Brown actually had a membership in the PGA, and someone 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.839 took the PGA office say, you know, this guy's black. 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.600 The PGA revoked Dewey Brown's eligibility, and in nineteen thirty 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.160 four it officially amended its constitution to limit membership to 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:48.560 quote professional golfers of the Caucasian race. That was the 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.120 actual written phrase, and it came to be known as 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.280 the Caucasian only clause. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.520 The Caucasian clause that the PGA has. 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.959 The Professional Golf Association's Caucasian only clause. 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.640 What had already been there, the sort of racial all 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.720 white notion of PGA players is now codified in a 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:13.400 written constitution of this organization that has huge implications for 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:14.360 a range. 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:19.400 Of individuals, including African American competitive golfers, because increasingly, by 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.959 the nineteen thirties, top professional events are requiring PGA membership for. 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.680 Entry, and so you can get tournament organizers who consider 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:33.800 themselves quite progressive on this the Southern issue of race 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.719 and segregation, but their golf tournament is going to be 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.760 a golf tournament for members of the PGA, and that 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:42.560 means black people. Black players are out. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.600 But African Americans didn't withdraw from the game. Instead, they 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.320 created what Marvin Dawkins calls parallel institutions. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.520 Blacks formed their own organization in nineteen twenty six and 0:12:54.679 --> 0:13:00.320 was called the United Golfers Association, and the UGA was very, very, 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:07.080 very significant in promoting the organization of black goffers, primarily 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.959 in the Northeast and the Midwest. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.280 UGA events attracted great players in the nineteen thirties and forties. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.880 Ted Rhoades, Howard Wheeler, and Bill Spiller were the Black 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.599 Tours answer to Jean Sarazen, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.680 in the same way that Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, and 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.240 Satchel Paige were Negro League Baseball's answer to Lou Garrigg, 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:32.959 Ted Williams and Bob Feller. Still, many UGA golfers yearned 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:36.120 to compete against the best integrated fields, and so after 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.520 World War Two, black players began to challenge the Caucasian 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:40.120 only class. 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.480 In nineteen forty eight there was an effort led by 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:50.960 black coffers for them sue the PGA. The PGA said 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.280 through which leaders, look, look, look, we would tick up 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.120 the Caucasian only clause in our next meeting if you 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.960 withdraw the suit. The suit was withdrawn. They did nothing, 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.520 and there were some people who were involved in that 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:07.280 who were enrage. 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.720 They carried this anger into the nineteen fifties, and marching 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.920 right alongside them was Jackie Robinson. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:20.840 When Jackie Robinson retired in nineteen fifty six, he became 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.440 a columnist for the New York Post, and he wrote 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:30.760 article after article after article targeting the PGA and his 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.760 failure to permit blacks to play. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:40.040 Robinson uses very strong language whenever he writes about golf. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.720 Robinson uses language like white supremacy, American apartheid is what 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:46.440 he calls it. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.000 The public pressure is mounting, but the PGA remains stubborn 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:51.440 on the Caucasian only class. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.400 Right up until the end. The national body of the 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.400 PGA is voting overwhelmingly to. 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.040 Keep it, and Robinson keeps firing back. By Aron in 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:01.440 nineteen sixty. 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:06.160 Robinson's talking about golf segregation is segregation in New York. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.480 In New York City, there's PGA events, in San Diego, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.000 in Pebble Beach, in California, there's PGA events. So Robinson 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.920 is very much hitting this sense of America. If you 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.840 support this, you support segregation in the whole country. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.280 The outrage builds and eventually a key group of people 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.920 gets involved, lawyers. 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.400 And then they get legal support from the Attorney General 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.000 in California. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:36.040 Mosque, the Attorney General of the state of California. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.040 The PGA is threatened with legal action from these key 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.040 states where there's a lot of important tournaments, and that's 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:43.720 really what breaks the camel's back. 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.120 The PGA of America is spooped. So in nineteen sixty one, 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.280 the year when Arnold Palmer wins six tournaments, the year 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.960 when Jack Nicholas turns pro the PGA votes to remove 0:15:55.200 --> 0:16:00.480 the Caucasian only class from its constitution. It was a victory, 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.320 but a late one and a sad one. The clause 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.320 had lasted for twenty seven years. But obviously it was 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.560 a step forward and in part a testament to what 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.320 Jackie Robinson could do, and it. 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.840 Showed the influence of not just celebrity status, but the 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.320 accomplishments and regard in which Jackie Robinson was. 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:29.760 Hell, tell me this about Tommy Armor. Where did you 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.520 begin your career my golf career, golf career? 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:34.200 That's right. 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:36.240 You have varied interests as far and in your career 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:36.760 as a too. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.120 Oh yes, I have had some that have to be 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.080 expaghaated before I co go did. 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:44.120 What am I side of playing golf? 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.840 But it's not like American golf instantly became a post 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.840 racial utopia in nineteen sixty one. For one thing, black 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.600 players had to meet a number of terms and conditions 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.200 before becoming PGA members, terms and conditions that until that 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.480 point they had not been allowed to work toward, and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.600 so they all had to go back to square one. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.960 Even Charlie Sifferd, a veteran pro with elite skills, didn't 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.800 become a full PGA member until nineteen sixty four, he 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.480 was forty two years old. As Marvin Dawkins explained it 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.760 to me, this is one way that institutional racism works. 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:26.400 Anti racism is not just an individual problem. So sometimes 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.720 people think that we need to just focus on anti racists, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.280 and that's important, But when we talk about institutional racism, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:38.439 we're talking about the normal operations of society. There's nothing 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.560 wrong with how we do things and run in our 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:48.240 organizations to be profitable. Yet what you're doing as a 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:53.760 normal operation of how you structure what you do is exclusion. There. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.719 In other words, after the PGA struck the Caucasian only clause, 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.400 its rules no longer mentioned explicitly, but in the everyday 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.359 implementation of those rules, things were still more difficult for 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:10.600 black golfers than for white golfers. This was post Jim. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.359 Crow America, but it also wasn't We could talk about 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:20.359 Jim Crowism as being forever from the time that black 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.600 people were here in sixteen nineteen. So when people talk 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.240 about the Jim Crow here, I make it clear that 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.639 that's a historical period that was put in place. But 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:38.840 certainly segregation and the oppression of black people has been continuous. 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:41.840 Improvac that was. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.280 I think, without doubt the luckies golfer. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.960 I don't know about being so it was a good play. Yeah, 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:50.879 you have to be a good player. That went all 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.280 the top prizes of PGA, the British Open, the Euros Opened, 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.560 every major professional golf term of Tommy Armor has won. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:18:59.280 But I still was lucky. 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.400 Let's catch back up with Jackie Robinson nineteen fifty six, 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:10.920 he retires from baseball. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:16.320 I mean, he is arguably the most recognizable athlete in 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.600 the world. He has a tremendous amount of sort of 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:21.840 social and cultural capital. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.919 But Robinson takes what seems like a relatively unglamorous job. 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.040 He goes to work as an executive for the coffee 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:30.639 company Chalk Full of Nuts. 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:36.679 Robinson is leading this kind of Rockefeller Republican life, and 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.480 he's commuting from Connecticut to New York City. He's serving 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.760 on the board of on boards in corporate America, establishing 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:45.960 banks in Harlem, all of these things. 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:47.840 And in many ways he fits right in. 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.680 You know, he had this bent where he was drawn 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.399 to that world of you know, I don't know what 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:59.040 you call Wall Street finance, corporate America. His politics sort 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.359 of leaned that that way as well. So most of 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.960 corporate America, most corporate boards, you know, they supported the 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:09.680 Vietnam War and these anti communism. Robinson loved that stuff. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.159 But on racial issues, Robinson remained progressive and outspoken. 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:19.280 Always on the issue of segregation, racism, and discrimination. He 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.800 was a powerful voice for change. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.000 It was a delicate balance between corporate America and the 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.679 civil rights movement, but Jackie Robinson seemed capable of maintaining it. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.240 He was a very effective communicator in a range of 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:37.720 social situations and public situations. He was very much adept 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:39.440 in the world of whiteness. 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.080 So in the mid nineteen sixties, this is where Jackie 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.760 Robinson is commuting between Connecticut and New York, serving on 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:46.600 corporate boards. 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.720 He's living that sort of relatively republican kind of conservative 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.600 capitalists you know dream, right, and part of that dream 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:56.160 is golf. 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.359 This is when golf is emerging as the favorite pastime 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.240 of the business class. The suburbs of New York City 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.280 have become crowded with country clubs, and Robinson starts to 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.119 get invited to play at them, or at least some 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:08.480 of them. 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.080 Predominantly Jewish clubs would be the most likely clubs that 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:14.280 might be open to having black visitors. 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.400 There's a particular Jewish club where Robinson begins to play 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.200 frequently as a guest, and. 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.600 The members grumble. A few members actually left the club 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.720 over the fact that other members of the club were saying, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:27.639 this guy spends too much time here. 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.200 Eventually Robinson gets the message. 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.040 He never becomes a member at any of these sort 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.360 of all white clubs that he visits in that period. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:38.919 So even though he was famous and largely beloved, his 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.720 race was keeping him out of country clubs. 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:44.800 Of course, he keeps playing golf. 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.680 He would, you know, wake up like anybody at any 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.359 other normal shlub and go down at four am to 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.800 try to get a tea time at the municipal and 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.360 get thrown together with people. So here, it's just amazing 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.600 to think of one of the most popular athletes in 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:00.560 the history of the world. But that's that's what he 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.080 needs to do to access golf in Connecticut. 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.280 So Robinson starts writing editorials about this new, very specific 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:09.000 form of racism he's encountering. 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.280 He says, there's clubs that in the Northeast that pride 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:17.680 themselves on being sort of progressive and open to Jewish members, 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.080 and all of these things, and yet if I get 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:23.680 invited there too many times people start to talk about it, 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.520 and even though I'm this famous guy, they don't want 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:28.760 me at their club. 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.399 By nineteen sixty six, Jackie Robinson has another idea. He 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.400 wants to establish a new country club, a truly race 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.040 blind country club, and he gets the support of a 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:42.439