[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 22 (Monday, February 22, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H615-H617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LANGSTON 
                              GOLF COURSE

  Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 526) recognizing the 70th anniversary of John 
Mercer Langston Golf Course, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 526

       Whereas the site for the historic Langston Golf Course was 
     selected in 1929, following repeated demands from African-
     Americans who were excluded from all but one of the 
     District's public courses, the Lincoln Memorial;
       Whereas construction did not begin until the mid 1930s, and 
     in 1938, African-American women from the Wake Robin Golf Club 
     pressed for desegregation of the District of Columbia's 
     public courses by drafting and introducing a petition to 
     Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes;
       Whereas the Langston Golf Course, officially opened in 
     1939, is the first and only course built by the United States 
     Government for segregated purposes, and was built because 
     African-Americans were denied equal access to the city's golf 
     courses;
       Whereas the Langston Golf Course was named for John Mercer 
     Langston, a renowned Howard University educator, prominent 
     political figure, and the first African-American Congressman 
     from Virginia, elected in 1888;
       Whereas the Langston Golf Course is listed in the National 
     Register of Historic Places and has been the home course of 
     both the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, 
     respectively the Nation's first clubs for African-American 
     men and women;
       Whereas over its 70-year existence, the Langston Golf 
     Course has attracted many famous African-American golfers, 
     such as Lee Elder, Ted Rhodes, Calvin Peete, and Jim Thorpe, 
     who all made regular and annual stops on the circuit of 
     African-American professionals when they were unable to play 
     regularly on the then-racially restricted PGA Tour;
       Whereas other notable visitors to play golf there include 
     heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, Hall of Fame baseball 
     player Maury Wills, Washington Senators baseball player Chuck 
     Hinton, Washington Redskins players Darrell Green and Brian 
     Mitchell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, 
     Missouri Congressman Lacy Clay, South Carolina Congressman 
     James Clyburn, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, actor and 
     professor Al Freeman, Jr., and the musical superstars the 
     O'Jays have all enjoyed the Langston course;
       Whereas in 2002, a partnership was formed with Howard 
     University to open the Interpretive Education Center, and 
     this program was integrated into the Langston community 
     schools in 2003;
       Whereas for more than 15 years, three junior golf programs 
     have made the Langston Golf Course their home, Masons Army, 
     Langston Junior Boys and Girls, and the First Tee, DC;
       Whereas juniors from these programs are nationally and 
     internationally known as The Jimmy Garvin All-Stars and are 
     required to utilize the Education Center in order to learn 
     golf and use the facilities;
       Whereas these programs operate year round offering 
     educational and golf instruction;
       Whereas the Langston Golf Course is known as the home of 
     the internationally renowned Capital City Open Pro-Am 
     Tournament and the Jimmy Garvin Legacy Scholarship Classic;
       Whereas the Langston Golf Course, Rock Creek Golf Course, 
     and East Potomac Golf Course are owned by the National Park 
     Service, and each has a long history of service to the 
     general public as an integral part of the Nation's capital, 
     including services to local and regional residents, visitors, 
     and tourists; and
       Whereas it is the policy of the National Park Service to 
     maintain and upgrade its recreational sites: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives recognizes the 
     historical and cultural significance of the Langston Golf 
     Course and its contributions to racial equality.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) and the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. 
Foxx) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts.


                             General Leave

  Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and to add any extraneous materials.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LYNCH. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government 
Reform, I am pleased to present House Resolution 526 for consideration. 
This legislation recognizes the historical and cultural significance of 
the John Mercer Langston Golf Course as well as its contributions to 
achieving racial equality.
  Introduced by my colleague, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton of 
the District of Columbia, on June 10, 2009, H. Res. 526 enjoys the 
support of 50 Members of Congress. In addition, a Senate companion bill 
to this legislation, Senate Resolution 162, was introduced by Senator 
Russ Feingold, and was subsequently passed by the United States Senate 
on May 21, 2009, by unanimous consent.
  Madam Speaker, over the course of its 70-year history, the John 
Mercer Langston Golf Course has stood as a symbol of the struggle for 
racial equality in the District of Columbia and across our Nation. In 
addition, the Langston Golf Course continues to serve as a regional hub 
for the promotion of golf as a recreational and as a professional sport 
in the Greater Washington, D.C., area as well as being an invaluable 
community institution dedicated to providing greater educational 
opportunities to area residents.
  Located alongside the Anacostia River in northeast Washington, D.C., 
the Langston Golf Course was constructed in the mid-1930s in response 
to the exclusion of African Americans from all but one of the 
District's public golf courses. Appropriately, the Langston Golf Course 
was named in honor of a renowned African American educator and 
political figure, John Mercer Langston, who founded and became the 
first dean of the Howard University School of Law, the first president 
of Virginia State University and, in 1888, the first African American 
Congressman elected to represent the State of Virginia.
  From its official opening in 1939, the Langston Golf Course has 
served as the home course of the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin 
Golf Club--the Nation's first clubs for African American men and women. 
In addition, the Langston Golf Course has consistently attracted a 
variety of outstanding African American golfers, including Ted Rhodes, 
Calvin Peete, Jim Thorpe, and Lee Elder, who, along with his wife, 
Rose, managed the course during the 1970s.
  Moreover, as home of the widely known Capital City Open Golf 
Tournament, the Langston Golf Course has attracted a variety of 
prominent Americans from the world of politics, sports, and 
entertainment, including President Gerald Ford, heavyweight boxing 
champion Joe Louis, and comedian Bob Hope.
  Today, the Langston Golf Course continues to serve the general public 
by offering year-round educational and golf instruction designed to 
promote the sport of golf as well as educational opportunities in the 
Washington, D.C., community.
  In 2002, the Langston Golf Course entered into a partnership with 
Howard University to establish the Interpretive Educational Center, a 
learning facility that offers comprehensive child and adult educational 
programs as well as life skills workshops. Additionally, for over 15 
years, the Langston Golf Course has served as the home course for three 
junior golf programs--the Masons Army, the Junior Boys and Girls, and 
the First Tee, D.C. Collectively, the program participants are known as 
the ``Jimmy Garvin All-Stars'' in honor of Langston's longtime general 
manager, community leader and member of the African American Golfers 
Hall of Fame, Jimmy Garvin. Notably, these juniors must utilize the 
Interpretive Education Center as a prerequisite to learning golf and to 
using the Langston facilities.
  Overall, the junior programs at Langston Golf Course include the 
participation of over 200 local boys and girls. In addition to offering 
golf instruction, they focus on cultivating

[[Page H616]]

principles of honesty and integrity as well as highlighting the 
interrelationship between excellence on the golf course and excellence 
in the classroom.
  Notably, the Langston Golf Course is also home to the annual Jimmy 
Garvin Legacy Scholarship Tournament. Proceeds from the tournament are 
donated to Langston's Interpretive Educational Center in furtherance of 
Langston's mission of teaching the sport of golf to area youth while 
also developing them as higher learners.
  Madam Speaker, in recognition of its historical and cultural 
significance, the Langston Golf Course was placed on the National 
Register of Historical Places in 1991. It is my hope that we can 
further honor this distinguished community institution through the 
passage of House Resolution 526. I urge my colleagues to join us in 
supporting House Resolution 526.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. FOXX. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 526, recognizing 
the historical and cultural significance of the Langston Golf Course 
and its contributions to racial equality.
  Opening its doors in 1939, the Langston Golf Course has been both a 
meeting ground and a playground for thousands of African American 
golfers. During a time when African American golfers were prohibited 
from playing at most Washington, D.C., golf courses, unless it was 
caddie day, women from the Wake Robin Golf Club pressed for the 
desegregation of the District of Columbia's public courses by drafting 
and introducing a petition on their behalf to the Secretary of the 
Interior under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Named after the noted professor 
and first African American Congressman from Virginia, John Mercer 
Langston, the once nine-hole course was the first and only course built 
by the United States Government as a segregated ``African Americans 
only'' facility. Home to the Royal Golf Club and Wake Robin Golf Club, 
Langston was expanded into an 18-hole course in 1955, and is listed in 
the National Register of Historical Places.
  This year, the golf course celebrates its 70th anniversary. Over the 
years, the venue has attracted many famous African American golfers, 
including Lee Elder, who once had a contract to manage the facility; 
Ted Rhodes, considered one of the greatest African American players in 
the 1940s and 1950s; and Calvin Peete.
  The course, which today counts about 25,000 rounds played a year, has 
recently drawn a diverse group of devoted players of all ages, genders, 
and races to its challenging 6,500-yard, par-72 layout. Thousands of 
these players are children from all races and economic backgrounds from 
surrounding neighborhoods who have found a safe haven for pursuing 
education and for learning life lessons from the game of golf. For more 
than 15 years, three junior golf programs have made Langston their 
home--Masons Army, Langston Junior Boys and Girls, and the First Tee, 
D.C. The Langston Golf Course is also known as the home of the 
internationally renowned Capital City Open Pro-Am Tournament and as the 
Jimmy Garvin Legacy Scholarship Tournament.
  Owned by the National Park Service, the Langston Golf Course has a 
long history of accessibility to all, and today, we recognize this 
historical facility which for 70 years has been patronized year-round 
by the famous as well as by young people, by regional residents, and by 
tourists alike.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 5 minutes to the lead 
sponsor of this resolution, the very capable Representative from the 
District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton.
  Ms. NORTON. I thank the chairman for his courtesy and generosity and 
for his help in perfecting this resolution. I thank the gentlewoman on 
the other side as well. I thank them both for the excellent history of 
Langston they have offered this morning, up to and including its 
present-day facilities, not only to serve golfers but to serve the 
children of the District of Columbia.
  Madam Speaker, I will endeavor not to repeat what they have said but 
will only indicate why I have brought the bill forward at this time and 
especially during this month, Black History Month, when I know Members 
look for reasons in history, particularly in living history, to 
celebrate African American contributions to American life.
  So why do I choose a golf course--I who do not know an iron from a 
tee? I choose a golf course because I am in such great admiration of 
this golf course, which has served the people of the District of 
Columbia for now over 70 years and which was started even before I was 
born, when young women, apparently not the male golfers who 
predominated then and predominate now, insisted that there had to be 
somewhere for African Americans to play golf.
  What Members may not recognize is that the District of Columbia was a 
legally segregated city. It was segregated by the Congress of the 
United States. Brown v. Board of Education was brought by five 
jurisdictions. One of them was the District of Columbia. It was one of 
the Brown cases. Every part of this city was segregated except the 
buses. When these women found that they could not play on the public 
golf courses here, they petitioned the Secretary of the Interior, 
Harold Ickes, for the right to play golf like everyone else.

                              {time}  1445

  The Federal Government did something that it has never done before 
and has never done since. It started a segregated golf course. The 
Federal Government had not done that before. It didn't buy in to Jim 
Crow, For this was long after the Civil War. But in order to have a 
golf course in a segregated city, you had to have a black golf course, 
so that is what we got. This golf course became nationally known 
because many celebrities came to Washington and it was the golf course 
that black celebrities had to play on from Joe Lewis to Members of 
Congress who today are frequent players at the Langston the golf 
course.
  This golf course is one of the great undervalued properties in the 
District of Columbia. It has gotten great interest from people who want 
to remake golf courses. Because of its historic significance, they see 
it as a real prize.
  My hat is off to Jimmy Garvin, whom you have mentioned in your 
remarks, both of you have mentioned in your remarks, because what Jimmy 
Garvin has done is to build up a golf course which was built on a trash 
dump. I don't think that's so bad today. We want to build more on tire 
dumps so that we can make greater use of what we are throwing away. But 
it certainly indicated where this golf course came then, and, of 
course, it is not in the best condition today.
  I have also introduced the Golf Course Preservation and Modernization 
Act of 2009, and long ago I recognized that the Federal Government and 
National Park Service were not in a position to make this into a class 
A golf course, but along with the East Potomac Park and Rock Creek Golf 
Course--imagine a city with three golf courses--my bill would indeed 
form a public/private partnership so that the money would essentially 
come from the private sector.
  If we look at Black History Month as a way to celebrate not only 
where black people have been but where they are, it's important to 
understand the institutions that they revered and that they preserved 
and still preserve because those institutions, for example, as we now 
see black golfers now regularly on golf courses, had they not been 
present, then of course there would have been no way for black people 
to play golf at all. So we were grateful even for a segregated golf 
course. Black people in the District of Columbia indeed were very 
grateful that Harold Ickes, in fact, answered the petition with a golf 
course. And today, close to 71 years later, we should, I think, pay 
tribute not only to the fact that if that was the only way to do it, 
that's what the Federal Government did, but we've now come to a time in 
this city when every facility is open to everyone.
  We cherish this golf course for its great history and particularly 
those who keep that history alive like Jimmy Garvin and the Langston 
Golf Course.
  Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support H. Res. 526, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I just want to ask all of our colleagues to 
join with the lead sponsor of this resolution, Eleanor Holmes Norton. 
And I

[[Page H617]]

must confess that I have had the opportunity to travel out to--Langston 
is about 10 minutes from my house, so I have been out there. I've seen 
the youth programs that they have had. Absolutely fantastic. Jim Garvin 
does a wonderful job there as the groundskeeper and general manager, 
the crew there. You can tell the way the people there who run and 
maintain that golf course, they understand the history. They understand 
the importance of the Langston Golf Course from when it was home to the 
Negro Golf League during the days of segregation, and they understand 
going forward what a treasure it really is. So I am particularly happy 
to call on our Members to support House Resolution 526.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H. 
Res. 526, a resolution to recognize the 70th anniversary of John Mercer 
Langston Golf Course. This bill was introduced by Representative Norton 
of D.C., and I am a proud co-sponsor of this legislation. I urge my 
colleagues to support this important resolution.
  As a result of segregation during the early 20th century, African-
American golfers were unable to enjoy a round of golf at public courses 
within the District of Columbia. As a result, the John Mercer Langston 
Golf Course was built in 1939 as a golf course that African-Americans 
could call their own.
  The course was named for John Mercer Langston who, in 1855, became 
the first African-American elected to public office. He was the founder 
and first dean of Howard University's Law Department, now the Howard 
University School of Law. He was the first president of Virginia State 
University, and the first African-American congressman elected from 
Virginia. The golf course was originally built with only nine holes; 
however, today it is a full 18-hole golf course. The unique history of 
this golf course was recognized in 1991, when the first nine holes were 
placed on the National Register tor Historic Places.
  The John Mercer Langston Golf Course is the home course to the Royal 
Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, the Nation's first golf clubs 
for African-American men and women. Today, there are plans underway to 
upgrade the course to championship quality and to include a museum and 
a new clubhouse.
  Over its 70-year existence, the Langston Golf Course has attracted 
many famous African-American golfers, such as Lee Elder, Calvin Peete, 
and Jim Thorpe, who all made regular stops when they were unable to 
play regularly on the racially restricted PGA Tour. The John Mercer 
Langston Golf Course is also home to the Capital City Open, a renowned 
event that has attracted participants such as Bob Hope, former 
president Gerald Ford, and Joe Louis. As a result of the long history 
of the John Mercer Langston Golf Course, it will forever be associated 
with the development and desegregation of public golfing and 
recreational facilities in the Nation's capital.
  Since its construction in 1939, the John Mercer Langston Golf Course 
became a beacon for desegregation in recreational facilities. I urge my 
colleagues to join me in support of this resolution, and recognize the 
70th anniversary of this historic golf course.
  Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 526, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
  The title of the resolution was amended so as to read: ``Recognizing 
the historical and cultural significance of the Langston Golf Course 
and its contributions to racial equality.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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