Changing the Course

Peter May

doi:10.5771/9781538178027

Summary

The compelling, little-known story of golfer Charlie Sifford and attorney Stanley Mosk who together made history by taking on the PGA and their Caucasians Only by-law.

It began with a chance meeting at a Los Angeles country club in 1959. That was the day Charlie Sifford, the first Black golfer to get his PGA card, and Stanley Mosk, a crusading attorney general of California and future state Supreme Court justice, met for the first time. Little did either of them know that it would grow into a history-making alliance that would end segregation in professional golf.

In Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford and Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA, Peter May tells the captivating story of Sifford and Mosk’s battle to end the rank racial discrimination that had been codified in the constitution of the PGA. Black golfers who preceded Sifford, such as Bill Spiller and Ted Rhodes, had unsuccessfully challenged the PGA’s discriminatory policy. Sifford had been fighting the PGA for years just to be able to compete with the white players. Mosk had little knowledge of the PGA or the fact that Blacks were being discriminated against by the organization’s by-laws. But the golfer had a cause that the attorney general was only too eager to champion. The two made for a powerful pair.

Changing the Course focuses on the individual journeys of Sifford and Mosk before delving into the crucial intersection of their lives that changed the professional golf world forever. Their stories provide a window into the changing landscape of mid-20th century America when the nation was forced to confront its history of racial injustice in professional sports and beyond.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2024
ISBN-Print: 978-1-5381-7801-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-5381-7802-7
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 190
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Prologue: Los Angeles, January 1969M. No access
Beginnings No access Pages 1 - 16
Stanley No access Pages 17 - 30
The Benefactors No access Pages 31 - 48
Stanley, the Death Penalty and the Democratic Revival in California No access Pages 49 - 64
The Fight Continues No access Pages 65 - 80
The Obnoxious Restriction No access Pages 81 - 96
Aronimink—July 1962 No access Pages 97 - H
Charlie in the 1960s No access Pages 101 - 114
Stanley in the 1960s No access Pages 115 - 130
The Masters No access Pages 131 - 142
Bakke, Bird, a Senior Moment and an Elusive Buick No access Pages 143 - 158
Epilogue No access Pages 159 - 168
Acknowledgments No access Pages 169 - 172
A Note on Sources No access Pages 173 - 174
Bibliography No access Pages 175 - 178
Index No access Pages 179 - 188
About the Author No access Pages 189 - 190