Donald Trump has done a lot to undermine racial integration since retaking the White House.
His administration has given federal contractors the green light to run segregated facilities. It also killed a long-standing school desegregation agreement the federal government had in place with a locality in Louisiana. And now there’s the administration’s termination of leases for Washington’s three public golf courses, a move announced Thursday that may seem race-neutral but which risks undermining the means by which many Black golfers have gained — and continue to gain — access to the notoriously exclusive game.
After weeks of speculation, the administration revealed Thursday that it had terminated a 50-year lease agreement launched five years ago with the National Links Trust, a nonprofit group dedicated to making golf “accessible” and “affordable” that had been contracted to operate Washington’s three publicly owned golf courses.
The administration claimed the organization missed certain payments and failed to maintain the properties, both of which the National Links Trust denies. The group’s co-founder, Will Smith, told MS NOW on Sunday that his organization was “blindsided” by the contract’s termination and said it leaves him unsure of the future of publicly accessible golf in the District.
“The Trump administration prides itself on getting the job done for the American people and partnering with others who share that same goal,” the administration said in a statement.
Smith wouldn’t weigh in on whether he thought Trump’s personal ownership of private golf courses constitutes a conflict of interest. But he did say Trump’s vision for the game is “different than ours.”
And indeed, there are concerns — such as those expressed in “The Contrarian” by Howard University student and golfer Daryn Dickens — that Trump and his demonstrably anti-Black, diversity-averse regime could make changes to the public courses that would make them less hospitable or accessible to Black golfers who have been welcomed there when others wouldn’t have them.
America’s private golf course operators have a sordid history of racist discrimination, which has made public courses — such as the ones Trump is trying to commandeer in D.C. — essential for Black people looking to enjoy the game.
The Golf Channel report below, narrated by actor Jeffrey Wright, explains how D.C.’s public courses — particularly the Langston Golf Course in the city’s northeast — have helped integrate the game of golf by serving as a refuge for Black golfers who were denied opportunities to play elsewhere. Langston, after all, was named for John Mercer Langston, the first African American elected to public office.
The administration wouldn’t need to put up “whites only” signs at these facilities to make them less amenable to Black golfers than they have been in years past. It could do a variety of things to impede the racial progress that D.C.’s public courses have set out to achieve, including cutting ties to pro-diversity golf programs such as First Tee, or imposing new fees that make the courses inaccessible to most locals.
The Langston Golf Course website lays out its historical significance, not just to the Black community in Washington, but for Black golfers nationwide:
In 2013, Langston golf was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame because ‘it stands as the enduring symbol of the struggle to find equality in golf for black Americans.’
But Trump has a penchant for scrubbing historical records and undoing diversity initiatives. So why wouldn’t we expect him to exclude Black folks from golf?
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