Langston Golf Course is an 18-hole golf course in Washington, D.C., established in 1939.Savage and Shull, African American Historic Places, 1994, p. 139. It was named for John Mercer Langston, an African American who was the first dean of the Howard University School of Law, the first president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University), and the first African American elected to the United States Congress from Virginia.Evelyn, Dickson, and Ackerman, On This Spot: Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C., 2008, p. 291. It was the second racially desegregated golf course in the District of Columbia, and in 1991 its first nine holes were added to the National Register of Historic Places."Langston Golf Course to Be Repaired," Washington Post, February 23, 1999.
The course's official address is 2600 Benning Road NE. The course's front nine are located just south of the National Arboretum. Part of the course's back nine holes are located on Kingman Island, which is bordered by the Anacostia River in the east and Kingman Lake in the west.Barker, "Clouds Gathering Over Children's Island," Washington Post, August 9, 1991.
Langston Golf Course should not be confused with the Anacostia Golf Course, an 18-hole golf course also located in Anacostia Park. Anacostia Golf Course was on the eastern shore of the Anacostia River. It opened in May 1933 and closed in June 1958.Herman, "Anacostia Dedicates New 18-Hole Golf Links Today," Washington Post, May 5, 1933; "Anacostia Course Will Close Sunday," Washington Post, June 7, 1958.
Course description Langston Golf Course is an 18-hole, par 72 course.Thompson, National Geographic Traveler: Washington, D.C., 2008, p. 263.Surkiewicz, Sehlinger, and Zibart, The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C., 2002, p. 399. Other services offered at the course include a driving range with 50 slots, golf school, golf shop, putting green, and snack bar.Price and Price, Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Washington, D.C., 2006, p. 136; "Wednesday," Washington Post, April 24, 2009. There are several "junior golf" programs for children and teens, and a learning center aimed at low-income children. In 2009, about 25,000 rounds of golf were played on the course each year.Shapiro, "Langston Hopes Obama to Make Tee Time," ESPN.com, February 2, 2009. Some of the more famous people who have regularly played the course include boxer Joe Louis, baseball player Maury Wills, golfer Ted Rhodes, golfer Calvin Peete, golfer Charlie Sifford, golfer Al Morton, comedian Bob Hope, President Gerald Ford, swing singer Billy Eckstine, tennis legend Althea Gibson, celebrated African American amateur golfer Ethel Funches, and football star Jim Thorpe.Sheppard, "Golfers to Benefit From Face Lift at Langston Course," Washington Times, April 3, 1998.Gieser, "Morton Only Area Golfer in U.S. Open," Washington Post, June 14, 1984; Brown, "Segregation Curbed Golfer's Stardom," Washington Post, January 31, 2010. According to a report in the Washington Post, every great African American professional golfer in the United States has played at the course since its opening, with the exception of Tiger Woods.
Langston Golf Course is considered the best publicly owned course in the city."Bowie Golf and...," Washington Post, April 14, 2004. In 2004, a local newspaper described its driving range and practice tees as "excellent." The course is the only golf course in the city with water hazards. Holes 8 and 9 are considered quite challenging.Brown, Fodor's 2000 Washington D.C., 1999, p. 187. A reporter with ESPN.com, however, evaluated the course's toughest holes differently: ...[There is] a tee shot that requires a 200-yard carry to clear Kingman Lake on the 538-yard par-5 10th hole. There is a tough, 440-yard slight dogleg par 4 at No. 12, and the No. 1 handicap hole on the course is No. 3, a 520-yard par 5 that requires one shot over a creek and an approach to a small, elevated green. The Washington Post has characterized the first hole as "a treacherous 483-yard par 5 over water..."Nakamura, "Lehnhard's Eagle Leads to Victory," Washington Post, June 22, 1992.
In 2009, the course's manager was Jimmy Garvin. He had been the golf course's manager since 2001.Loverro, "On Course for Life," Washington Times, May 3, 2006.
Development
The first D.C. golf course which allowed people of color to play was the municipally owned Lincoln Memorial Golf Course, which opened on June 8, 1924."Two New Golf Links to Open This Summer," Washington Post, May 13, 1924."Muny Golf Course For Negroes Open," Washington Post, June 8, 1924. The course, which had only nine holes, extended from west of the Lincoln Memorial north along the Potomac River to about 27th Street NW. In 1925, the all-black Riverside Golf Club was organized to promote play on the new course.Dawkins and Kinloch, African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era, 2000, p. 28. Some members split off from this club six months after its formation to organize the Citizens Golf Club, which later changed its name to the Capital City Golf Club in 1927 and the Royal Golf Club in 1933. The Capital City/Royal club began advocating for expanded facilities for the burgeoning number of African American golfers in the city, and requested that the federal government (which operated all five golf courses in the city limits) construct a new 18-hole course for blacks to play at.Dawkins and Kinloch, African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era, 2000, p. 28-29. In 1927, John Langford, a prominent black architect in the city, petitioned the federal government to build the course on the new Anacostia Park, which was being built on both banks of the Anacostia River from material dredged from the riverbottom.Dawkins and Kinloch, African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era, 2000, p. 29. Over the next several years, African American golfers in the city and surrounding areas held rallies, attended hearings, wrote letters, and lobbied Congress and executive branch officials to build the new course in Anacostia Park.Savage and Shull, African American Historic Places, 1994, p. 140.
In 1934, government officials met with representatives of the black golfing community, including members of the Royal Golf Club, and agreed to build the new course in Anacostia Park. Over the next five years, club members, golfers, and government officials worked to identify a site and construct the course. The first nine holes of Langston Golf Course were built on the north end of Kingman Island in 1939. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Project Administration constructed the course.Kirsch, Golf in America, 2009, p. 148.Robinson & Associates, Fort Dupont Park Historic Resources Study, 2004, p. 316."New Golf Course Nears Completion," Washington Post, February 13, 1938. Construction began in 1936 and was nearing completion in February 1938, with an anticipated completion date of mid-1939.
In December 1938, park concessionaire Severine G. Leoffler, Sr., won the contract to administer the new Langston course.Whittlesey, "'New Deal' Is Planned For Golfers," Washington Post, December 31, 1938. His firm had first started managing Park Service courses in the city in 1921. Loeffler, who rose from extreme poverty to own a popular local restaurant and then became a noted concessionaire for the National Park Service,"Leoffler Bid For Links Is Low," Washington Post, December 22, 1935. administered Langston and the other city golf courses for the next four decades. The course opened at 2:00 pm on June 11, 1939.Gaines, "Fore! Posterity," Washington Post, October 9, 1997."Langston Golf Links Opens Today," Washington Post, June 11, 1939.Milloy, "For Black Women, Golf Wasn't Easy," Washington Post, April 26, 1987. Frank T. Bartside, Acting Superintendent of the National Capital Parks, opened the course. African American golfer Clyde Martin hit the first ball on the course."Links to the Past," Washington City Paper, April 19, 2002. (Martin became the first pro at Langston Golf Course.)Ducibella, "'Forbidden Fairways' Tells Story of Injustice Faced by Black Players," The Virginian-Pilot, September 16, 1998.
When it opened, Langston was one of only 20 golf courses in the United States open to blacks. But the course was not in good shape. Some of the greens lacked grass. An open sewer ran alongside the number three and five fairways.
The inadequate facilities at Langston led many black golfers to continue to agitate for expansion of the course. African Americans attempted to play golf at the all-white East Potomac Park Golf Course, Rock Creek Park Golf Course, and other all-white courses, but were usually prevented from doing so.Dawkins and Kinloch, African American Golfers During the Jim Crow Era, 2000, p. 29-30. Black golfers continued to lobby, rally, and testify in favor of an additional nine holes at Langston. In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, that de jure racial segregation was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Golf courses in Washington, D.C., were desegregated in 1955. That same year, the back nine holes at Langston were built in Anacostia Park (on the western shore of Kingman Lake).Fitzpatrick and Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington: Places and Events of Historical and Cultural Significance in the Nation's Capital, 2001, p. 52. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and in particular after the course's completion in 1955, Langston Golf Course was a regular stop for African Americans playing United Golf Association tournaments (because the PGA Tour was restricted to whites only).
Management and incidents
First four decades Two plane crashes occurred on Langston Golf Course in the 1940s. On December 28, 1945, a single-engine civilian light plan landed without incident on the course after weather forced the pilot down."Flier Unhurt After Landing On Golf Course," Washington Post, December 29, 1945. Another light plane, this one with engine problems, was forced to land on the course in 1948."Langston Links 'Birdie' Is Plane Forced to Land," Washington Post, February 15, 1948.
The Leoffler company's management of the course came under scrutiny in the late 1940s. Golfers complained about the course so vehemently that U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands began an investigation and asked the Park Service to delay renewing the firm's contract.Walsh, "Expert Finds Faulty Golf Courses Here," Washington Post, April 3, 1949. A consultant strongly criticized the firm's stewardship of the course. Nonetheless, the Loeffler company renewed its contract to manage Langston Golf Course in 1951."Leoffler Walks Out On Golf Talk," Washington Post, January 13, 1951. In the summer of 1951, Leoffler won special permission from the Office of Price Stabilization (a federal agency created to control prices during the Korean War) to raise fees at the course."Fees Increased At Four Public Golf Courses," Washington Post, August 8, 1951. The company signed a 10-year contract to manage the course in 1954."Leoffler Signs to Run Public Golf Courses Through 1963," Washington Post, June 24, 1954.
In 1957, the course suffered a setback when its one-story, concrete storage building burned to the ground, destroying $3,000 ($23,275 in 2010 inflated-adjusted dollars) worth of maintenance equipment."Langston Golf Links Storage Shed Burns," Washington Post, August 20, 1957.