(February 16, 2019)
BY JAMES BEATTY
I had the pleasure of meeting Frederick Ball, Inventor from Los Angeles, at the PGA Merchandise Show last month. He was kind enough to share this photo from his personal album. The photo shows how the folks in LA fought for the right to play golf in 1962.
Maggie took up golf as a pastime after winning a bet against Joe Louis in 1955, she began agitating against local golf courses which restricted black patrons. By 1958, she began writing a golf column in the California Eagle about black professional players,and by 1963 she launched Minority Associated Golfers to support young black golfers. Her agitation spread to broader issues, and in 1962, Hathaway became the founding president of the newly-chartered Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP. In 1967, she joined with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Willis Edwards in holding the first NAACP Image Awards.
Maggie Hathaway. in the middle holding the sign while protesting outside of Fox Hills Country Club, Los Angeles, Calif., in1962. (photo courtesy of Frederick Ball)
The Jack Thompson Golf Course in Los Angeles was renamed the Maggie Hathaway Golf Course in 1997. The course is also a participating site for the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) Junior Golf Foundation, which offer special rates for Juniors.
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Maggie, I thank you—and others like you around the United States—who fought for the right for us to play golf on public and private courses. It is now 52 years later and the fight for equality and parity in golf continues, but knowing that Maggie and others were so courageous provides me the motivation and courage to do my best to grow the game.
Thanks, Maggie.
James Beatty, Executive Editor, African American Golfer’s Digest
James Beatty, Executive Editor, African American Golfer’s Digest is also Founder of NCS International, an Omaha, Nebraska-based company that providers of an array of economic development services. He also serves on the Golf 20/20 Diversity Task Force and recently launched Jim Beatty Golf Ventures, a golf promotion and management company.
