National Affairs: Is Golf Necessary?

In Atlanta, Mayor William Berry Hartsfield last week instructed the Parks Department to obey a recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (TIME, Nov. 21) and open the city's seven municipal golf courses to Negroes.

"We have but two alternatives," Mayor Hartsfield said, "to comply with the court order, or close down and cease operation of our golf courses.

"Should we close our courses, it would deprive nearly 70,000 white players and 100 city employees of their jobs and their rights in order to deny a few dozen Negro players the use of the golf links. Atlanta has never provided a separate but equal golf course for Negroes because such an expensive project could never be justified to our taxpayers in terms of the few Negro citizens who play golf.

"Our action constitutes no precedent and is no bold departure from other Southern cities, many of which have long since met and solved this situation. Jacksonville, Nashville, Miami, Pensacola and New Orleans have been allowing Negroes on their public courses on specified days. Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Louisville have been allowing Negroes to play on public courses at any time. White and colored are now playing on many baseball diamonds in middle and south Georgia.

"Golf, by its very nature, is a segregated game, and neither necessary nor compulsory. All Southern cities report two things: 1) that the number of Negro players is uniformly very small, and 2) that there have been no incidents . . . We believe we will have the support of the great majority of our people as we endeavor to meet this new situation with the same calmness and levelheadedness which many of our sister cities of the South have already shown."