Chipping away at Discrimination at the Country Club
![handle is hein.journals/pepplr25 and id is 505 raw text is: Chipping Away at Discrimination
at the Country Club
Jennifer Jolly-Ryan*
I. INTRODUCTION
There are many private clubs in America today where members are
free both to recommend for membership those people with whom they
would like to associate, and to blackball those with whom they would
prefer not to associate.' As a consequence, private clubs often choose
new members based upon the desire to socialize with people of like
background, education, and stature within a community. Historically,
the American country club has been one of the least diverse American
institutions by design.' For the most part, the country club was created
by wealthy, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) between 1880
and 1930, when economic, racial, cultural and ethnic lines divided the
United States... into 'us' and 'them.''1 This division was never more
Professor of Legal Writing, Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Ken-
tucky University, and member, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. Any opinions
expressed herein are those of the author and not those of the Kentucky Commission
on Human Rights. Thank you to Jennifer Edwards, my research assistant, for all of
her hard work, to the late William Martin, Jr., and to my colleagues on the Commis-
sion who inspired this article through their dedication to the cause of civil rights.
1. See Tracy Everbach & Mark Wrolstad, Most-Elite Country Clubs Haven't Ad-
mitted Blacks, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, May 22, 1997, at lA. The vote on new mem-
bers [at many exclusive clubs] must be virtually unanimous because . .. [a] handful
of members have veto power which can prevent membership. Id. Furthermore, a
dissenter is not required to provide any reason for excluding an individual from a
club. See id.
2. See Frank Whelan, Few Minorities at Country Clubs, ALLENTOWN MORNING
CALL, June 5, 1997, at DI.
3. See id. Reportedly, President Kennedy was once challenged by his Secretary of
Labor, future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, for his membership in the
Links Country Club because it excluded Jews, whereupon President Kennedy suppos-
edly replied with a chuckle, Hell, Arthur, they don't even allow Catholics. See id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/pepplr25&div=37&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Chipping away at Discrimination at the Country Club
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most