Public versus Private Golf Courses - by Moses

Public vs Private Golf Courses

In 1937 the Golf Course of Oakdale was established as a Private Golf Club for Hebrews. Prior to Oakdale’s inception, no Hebrew, African-Canadian, or Native American was welcomed in any Golf Club (Public or Private) in the city of Toronto. To quantify, Oakdale was a Private Club for Hebrew Members only.
The debate today is whether this constitutes segregation. In other words, if I’m not allowed to Golf, and build my own Course for my use only, is this segregation? The answer is yes. The next logical question is what criteria had to be met to Golf at Oakdale? Considering that my Uncle is President, I would say that the criteria is simple – Were you invited by a member of the Club? There is no exclusion based on race, colour, or creed as there were in Public Golf Courses prior to 1964 in many places across the U.S and Canada. Prior to 1964, there were still Public Courses that had signs reading ‘No Coloured, Jews, or Indians allowed’. By the way, many people called my Grandfather a ‘Nigger’.
It was during the Summer of 1941 that my Papa (Grandfather) went to Golf at a Private Course with his friend. When my Papa went to pay for the round, his friend was shopping in the Pro-Club. The Golf Pro there approached my Papa’s friend and demanded to know who allowed him to be there. My Papa overheard the exchange and said to the Pro ‘That’s alright, we’ll leave.’ ‘No Mr. Goldman it’s alright for you to Golf here, it was my mistake.’ ‘No.’ My Papa replied, ‘we’ll Golf at our Club.’
Here is the dilemma. In establishing rights in 1937 we’ve now turned the corner. At this point, who decides whether a person is, or isn’t allowed to be a member at a Private Golf Club? When the criteria is based on race, colour, or creed the Club is promoting segregation, the exact same reason we established the Club in the first place. However, it is in our constitution that we have the Freedom of Assembly and the Freedom of Association, and this constitutes fair play.
In this writers’ opinion it is about time we turned the tables back and see multicultural golf-clubs that do not discriminate who can become a member based on race, colour and creed. Would a Native Golf course be a good thing? What would be wrong with standardizing the criteria as to who can be a member of a private Golf Club? In other words, let us ‘Niggers’, ‘Indians’, and ‘Jews’ be accepted as equals (Arab and Jew for that matter).