And this is why I cringe when people start poking fun at Kentucky:
The push to integrate Kentucky’s private social clubs, whose members clung to old notions of Southern white privilege for decades after the end of Jim Crow, began in the early 1990s with a lone, quiet protest: At lunchtime on days when the weather was nice, a black preacher and civil rights activist named Louis Coleman would put up a folding card table in front of one of the many unofficially restricted clubs here; set it with a tablecloth, china and candles; and dine on buns and lemonade.
Coleman died in 2008, but his efforts drew the attention of the state’s Commission on Human Rights, which opened a decade-long inquiry into Kentucky’s country clubs and men-only dining societies.
A 2004 state Supreme Court ruling pushed Kentucky’s remaining segregated clubs to stop the discrimination or risk losing tax deductions. Still, at least one club held out until late last year.
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The Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington is one example. The club, founded in 1924, is known for its pristine 18-hole golf course, clay tennis courts and Southern cuisine. Until seven months ago, it had never had a black member.
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The prevailing view at Idle Hour has always been: If we don’t want you, we don’t have to take you. “That’s very plain,” Scott said. “There is no right of membership. It’s a privilege.” (And one for the privileged. New members pay a $50,000 initiation fee.) The club accepted its first black member — retired NBA player Sam Bowie, who attended the University of Kentucky and is well known in Lexington — in November. “Sam’s just like everybody else,” Scott said.
The Louisville Country Club accepted its first black members in 2006. John McCall, the club’s president and an executive at a local energy company, said he feels strongly that it and others “should have moved faster.” (He declined to say how many black members are there now.) Yet he, too, resists the notion that government should have a say in how his club operates. “You will have a more successful value-based society” if you can move people to the “right conclusions about their own lives than if you force it,” McCall said.
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On a quick tour of the Louisville Country Club, founded in 1908, Summers paused at a wall of old pictures: white men in billowing golf pants; a crowd of jolly white faces at a 1939 dinner dance. Upstairs, antique china painted with pheasants hangs on the wall in the casual family dining room. The cozy dining room across the hall once seated only men, Summers said, looking self-conscious. “You can’t change the past.”
Click here to read the rest from the Washington Post.
And then ask yourself why Rand Paul supports legalizing this sort of discrimination.
22 responses so far ↓
1 Richard // Jun 2, 2010 at 12:22 pm
A solution here would be to enact a law that a private club can discriminate as they choose, but doing so would void any eligibility to make use of government-funded services such as the fire or police department. See how easy it is to get insurance when State Farm knows there won’t be any help coming in case of a fire.
2 spencer // Jun 2, 2010 at 12:56 pm
yep lets make sure that all of the white guys dont have “anything” that they can call their own and enjoy.
3 Deborah // Jun 2, 2010 at 1:36 pm
In some areas of the country, and in some areas of the state (I believe) you pay directly to sign up for fire department coverage. It does not mean they don’t help you, it just determines how much you are charged for service.
And many buildings and some developments have private police services.
4 jake // Jun 2, 2010 at 1:38 pm
In reference to the dozen or so disgusting comments we just deleted:
Yep, that’s the ticket.
Did you know there’s a scary black man in the White House? Oh, the horror! The neeeeeeegruhs is takin over! FEAR!
Foam at the mouth elsewhere, Paultards. This isn’t a spot for your “free speech.” Deal with it or move on.
5 TallGuy // Jun 2, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I have NEVER received an invite to the hundreds of after black church Bar-B-Q get togethers. Are these lunch and greet parties private? No. Do any whites attend? Not many, if no ne. Why? Because of the same reason the church hour is the most segregated (not a bad word) of the week. Some people need to stop and let personal society be that as may – personal.
6 TallGuy // Jun 2, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Anybody know any white justice people that have set up shop outside black establishments and charged an (extortion) fee not to make waves? Donations to the White Justice Center to avoid disruptions to an event. Donations to avoid embarrassing the attendees? If so, please call 1-800- DEFEND Me 2
7 tbrauch // Jun 2, 2010 at 2:41 pm
“I have NEVER received an invite to the hundreds of after black church Bar-B-Q get togethers.”
Have you ever asked for one, or tried to go to one? I have. And I was welcomed by everyone there.
8 tbrauch // Jun 2, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I’ve decided that since I’m anti-war, I’m not going to do business with veterans or soldiers anymore. I won’t serve them lunch when they come into my restuarant; I won’t let their children attend my state-subsidized day-care. And I sure as hell won’t let them on my golf course.
And, all of the Rand Paul supporters have to agree with me.
9 Aaron // Jun 2, 2010 at 3:16 pm
While I’m not a “Paultard” as you so nicely call people who support someone you don’t agree with, I do like to be fair.
I didn’t see anywhere in the article a number of folks who had tried to become members of those clubs and were denied based on their skin color.
Aren’t you discriminating against those who support Rand Paul?
10 Larry West // Jun 2, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I agree with Aaron here. How many are turned down solely because of race or some other discriminated-against feature? If that number is not known to be above zero, then we don’t know if that club is discriminatory or not. It should be easy to find some black person to say they were willing to spend the $50,000 but were turned down. Perhaps, until Sam Bowie came along, there hasn’t been a black person who wanted to join enough to pay the $50,000. (I don’t know, but it would be interesting to find out.)
Another way of looking at it is that the Idle Hour Country Club consists only of people stupid enough to waste $50,000 on an initiation fee (let alone the other expenses that you can probably get at a better value elsewhere). And it is for the best that such stupid people ought to be kept away from the rest of us anyway, regardless of ethnicity.
11 Aaron // Jun 2, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Larry,
You and I have missed the point completely. The point is to complain and make Rand Paul look like a real idiot at every possible intersection. Oh, and don’t forget the name calling. We’ve gotta get some name calling in there.
12 TallGuy // Jun 2, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Well said.
13 jake // Jun 2, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Reverse discrimination! Preach it! Get that darkie outta the White House! Affirmative Action gone wrong!
Tell me something: How many of you are overweight white guys who have been slighted by your daddy?
14 TallGuy // Jun 2, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I’m 6-4 tall, slender @ 195 #, love my deceased father, never slighted, college-educated and extremely disappointed at your raciest remarks toward fat, slighted white guys!
15 Larry West // Jun 2, 2010 at 8:09 pm
6″, 160 pounds, loved my late father also, who did not object to me once dating a black girl while in high school.
16 GoCards // Jun 3, 2010 at 12:43 am
I disagree w Paul on this, but to his point, tbrauch said: I’ve decided that since I’m anti-war, I’m not going to do business with veterans or soldiers anymore. I won’t serve them lunch when they come into my restuarant; I won’t let their children attend my state-subsidized day-care. And I sure as hell won’t let them on my golf course.
State subsidized anything is not applicable to Paul’s comments, but go ahead and start booting all vets and soldiers from your restaurant and golf course. See how long it takes you to go belly-up. Not only will you lose the business you boot, but all those who find it reprehensible, too…. The same could (hopefully) be said for most any other group you choose to reject in this day and age. But hey, it’s your business to lose.
Still, it (regulatory protection) was necessary in the 60s, perhaps still is (sadly if so), but hopefully won’t be much longer.
17 Lisa Graas // Jun 3, 2010 at 8:22 am
TallGuy,
Is there a black church that doesn’t accept white members? I’m not aware of any. I would have to challenge you on that. Also, I sincerely doubt that invitations are sent out for the after church BBQs. It’s probably ‘word of mouth’ with perhaps an announcement from the lectern and maybe a flyer on the wall. That is cultural segregation, not institutional segregation. I disagree with Rand Paul’s definition of “institutional segregation”. His definition has it applying only to government entities. Having said that, I think the freedom of religion trumps other rights in the vast majority of scenarios, so if it were an important and commonly held tenet of a particular congregation that they should not, for religious reasons, accept white members, I would not fight it. I’d hate it and call it wrong, but I wouldn’t support a Court ruling against them barring them from doing it. I’m sure most people would disagree with me that the freedom of religion trumps most other rights. At the same time, most people will still defend freedom of conscience and they are two sides of the same coin. Do you have freedom of conscience to hang up a ‘whites only’ (or ‘blacks only) sign? No. But in the case of a religious congregation, it’s different to me. If they act on that hatred and go out into the streets and assault people, that’s when the laws against assault should apply. We’re dealing with something similar to this now with imams preaching violence against non-Muslims in certain mosques. It’s a tough situation.
18 tbrauch // Jun 3, 2010 at 9:15 am
“go ahead and start booting all vets and soldiers from your restaurant and golf course. See how long it takes you to go belly-up.”
Interesting how when it’s about military people, ‘the market will correct it’ mentality sets in. But when it’s about black people (or white people), it seems the market won’t correct it.
Wonder why that is…
19 Aaron // Jun 3, 2010 at 11:22 am
@ Lisa Graas,
That’s because Paul believes the government should only regulate the government, not private organizations.
20 Larry West // Jun 3, 2010 at 11:47 am
Actually, tbrauch, I think in 2010 the market would probably correct it — just look at what happened to Cracker Barrel. After their accusations of not serving blacks, a boycott was started, and the organization bent over backwards trying to assure everyone that they did treat blacks fairly. Even in the early days — remember that busses were integrated as a result of the Montgomery Bus Boycott — one could argue that boycotts, with a few exceptions, worked.
One of the selling points regarding Louisville merger was that all laws would be revisited to see if they were still needed or needed to be adjusted. The same needs to be done on the state and federal level.
21 jake // Jun 3, 2010 at 11:49 am
How can you people talk politics at a time like this?
Don’t you know there is another dead Golden Girl?!?!
22 Gordon Garrett // Jun 3, 2010 at 2:26 pm
“I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member.” Groucho Marx
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