Fair Ways: How Six Black Golfers Won Civil Rights in Beaumont, Texas (review)

This book is not really about golf. Robert J. Robertson, a businessman and Beaumont historian, uses a lawsuit filed to desegregate two Beaumont parks and their golf courses as entry into an insightful and compelling study of black and white Beaumont during the final years of Jim Crow segregation and the early civil rights era. Robertson argues that it was the confluence of three elements—a group of blacks willing and able to serve as plaintiffs, attorneys to handle the case, and a federal judge willing to confront segregationist culture—that led to the successful court case. He provides an overview of Beaumont, focusing on the 1950s, but also including significant background material on the social, political, and economic development of the community (actually the two interlaced communities, black and white) during the quarter century that preceded the 1955 civil rights case. In addition he places the Beaumont conflict within Texas Democratic and Republican politics and the legal challenges to Jim Crow segregation that preceded the Beaumont case. Finally he provides a brief overview of the history of golf from the late nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century, both as a competitive sport and a recreational activity, and both for blacks and whites.

The story Robertson tells is fairly simple, at least on the surface. A small group of Beaumont's black citizens, who were enthusiastic golfers, petitioned the city government for the right to use the municipal golf courses. When this tactic failed, they hired two local black attorneys and filed a lawsuit in federal court calling for the desegregation of the city facilities. The court, ruling in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case, found in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the desegregation of the golf courses.

Robertson's story is more than just another small step on the long road to equal rights. What distinguishes it is the rich context that Robertson constructs. First he provides a vivid description of the physical and human characteristics of Beaumont's black and white communities. Especially revealing is his depiction of interconnection between these communities, both in terms of geographical proximity and in terms of the personal connections among the blacks and whites who will play key roles in the unfolding story. Even more impressive are the personal stories of the major players in the narrative. Each of the central characters—the golfers who file suit, the attorneys who represent them, and the presiding judge—is brought to life through biographical sketches. Each is presented as a unique and compelling individual. Certainly the mix of characters is unusual, including a Korean War hero, now a one-armed golfer who joined in the lawsuit; two Howard University law students who set up practice in Beaumont and handled the case; and a young East Texan who dropped out of Catholic seminary and later became the federal judge who presided over the case.

Robertson does a very good job of uncovering material on ordinary people and on day-to-day life in mid-twentieth-century Beaumont. His sources are extensive, and include personal interviews, local newspapers and magazines, city records, and the legal materials produced by the trial. The book is carefully researched, extensively footnoted, and clearly written. It provides a fresh look at race and the struggle for civil rights in a medium sized Texas city, and reminds us that history, even the history of dramatic national events, must be explored at the local level.