Membership discrimination in California social clubs has been based on sex, race, religion, political views and social standing. In the late 1980s, a successful effort was made in many of the clubs to open up membership first to racial or religious minorities and then to women. Strictly private clubs that are not open to the public, and for which tax exemptions are not claimed, maintain their right to discriminate on the basis of gender or race, and all clubs can discriminate on the basis of social standing.
A state law against discriminating in the service of private businesses was gradually made applicable to social clubs that engaged in commercial activities. Rules against discrimination were also applied where clubs were the beneficiaries of government in any way, notably through taxes or subsidies.
The first clubs
The Bohemian Club was founded in San Francisco in 1872 as a journalists' social group,"Days and Nights in OId Bohemia," San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1897, page 5 Library card required but it grew to become a refuge for some of the most powerful men in American business and politics. The similarly august California Club was founded in Los Angeles in 1888 when "at least 12 of the 125 founding members were Jews." But "as the original Jewish members died off, this power center became off limits to Jews." The Jonathan Club, a likewise prestigious social group, was established in Los Angeles in 1894.
Legislative measures
The Unruh Civil Rights Act, adopted in 1959, and as subsequently amended, outlaws discrimination based on age, ancestry, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and similar characteristics. The law applies to all businesses, including housing and public accommodations.Unruh Civil Rights Act Description, California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
Section 125.6 of the state's Business and Professions Code, which took effect on January 1, 1976, threatened disciplinary action against "any holder of a state liquor license who discriminates on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, ancestry or national origin," but it specifically exempted private clubs with "discriminatory membership policy." The State Franchise Tax Board has forbidden business tax deductions for fees and expenses incurred at discriminatory private clubs.
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on May 28, 1987, signed a bill sponsored by Council Member Joy Picus to ban discrimination at most of the city's large private clubs, based on "sex, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin or disability." It applied to any club with more than 400 members that "takes payments for meetings attended by non-members."
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities may, in certain described cases, force large private clubs to admit minorities and women. It said that "clubs which serve meals and rent facilities to outsiders are more like business establishments than intimate social groups and therefore have no right to escape anti-discrimination laws."
Significant changes for minority groups
1960s
In 1965, the Jonathan Club was charged with "anti-Negro" and "anti-Jew" bias and a complaint was raised that the membership dues of Mayor Sam Yorty were being paid by city taxpayers to support such discrimination. Yorty told a news conference he knew nothing about such a circumstance.Richard Bergholz, "Yorty Hits Roosevelt on Campaign Spending," Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1965, page 11 Library card required
The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith said that, in 1962, twelve of the "leading country clubs" and eight of the "most prestigious city clubs" in the Greater Los Angeles area were open only to Christians, but by 1969 those figures had dropped to eleven and five. Six of the city and country clubs that discriminated in 1969 were listed in Los Angeles, five in Pasadena, two in Glendale and one each in La Habra, Long Beach and Upland."Anti-Semitism Found Waning in Private Clubs," Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1967, page 3 Library card required
In July 1969, there were no Jewish members in the California Club but "at least one Jew" in the Jonathan Club, yet the latter club hadn't "taken in any Jewish members for at least two decades," Neil C. Sandberg regional director of the American Jewish Committee, told Jack Smith of the Los Angeles Times."Clubs' Barriers Thwart Careers, Study Discloses," Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1969, page A-1 Library card required
Smith wrote that a campaign had been going on for ten years to "quietly but unrelentingly" persuade "what has been called the 'last bastion' of anti-Semitism in America — the downtown men's clubs of the nation's big cities" to allow Jews to become members. Led by the American Jewish Committee, "with the active aid of the Antidefamation League, American Jewish Congress ... and other Jewish organizations," the campaign was successful in the case of the Stock Exchange Club, the University Club and the Chancery Club, but the Jonathan and the California clubs remained closed. The campaign was publicized upon the report of a seven-year study made at UCLA by Reed M. Powell, a sociologist.
1970s
Examples of prejudice
In May 1975, a touring choir from the United States Air Force Academy decided not to give a proposed concert at the Jonathan Club because Academy officers had been informed that the club had a policy against hosting blacks.
Loretta Thompson-Glickman, member of the Pasadena city Board of Directors, recalled that when first elected to the board in 1977, she and Jo Heckman, the only other female director, had to enter the University Club in that city through a side door. Attorney Candis Ipswich said she applied for membership the same year and was rejected because "I was the wrong sex."
J. Peter Dunston, a Washington, D.C., businessman who was spending a year in Los Angeles, was "surprised" in February 1978 to find "how directly" the prejudices of the Jonathan Club were expressed when he applied for membership and was interviewed by the membership committee. He was told that "Jews and blacks were not welcome in the club." One of the committee members later "denied everything," but the other said, "We explained it to him in a different way. We didn't use the word discriminate. 'Invite' was the word."Barry Siegel, "Pride and Prejudice: A Progress Report," Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1978, page F-1 Library card required
In 1978 there was still only one Jew in the Jonathan Club and none in the Los Angeles Country Club. The two clubs were known for their discrimination against Jews. Yet the Hillcrest Country Club in Beverly Hills was the "Jewish" counterpart to the Los Angeles Country Club, and Lew Wasserman, chairman of the board of the Music Corporation of America, told Times reporter Robert Scheer that the Hillcrest club "has consistently discriminated against non-Jewish members." "Line Drawn Between Two Worlds," Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1978, page B-1 Library card required
The Los Angeles Athletic Club had admitted blacks as members since the early 1960s, but it was discovered in 1975 that the club was admitting blacks "on a slower, more regulated basis than whites, in an effort not to offend or lose white men." The club quickly changed its policies after complaints were made.
Los Angeles bookseller Jake Zeitlin claimed in 1980 that many clubs, such as his city's Zamorano Club, an organization of bibliophiles, used a refusal to admit communists as a pretext for excluding Jews; he said he was denied admission for more than forty years under those circumstances.Jacob Zeitlin, Books and the Imagination, as told to Joel Garner (Los Angeles: Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 1980)
Another example of membership discrimination is reverse discrimination, such as the many private clubs in California that exclude men. In San Francisco at least three private social clubs exist (the Francisca Club, the Town & Country Club and the Metropolitan Club) which do not allow men to become members. To date, there have been no pressure campaigns or threats of lawsuits to force women-only private clubs to begin admitting men as members. Many women-only clubs are experiencing declining memberships, while men-only clubs such as the Bohemian have decades-long waiting lists of would-be members.
Outside pressure
By 1976 some businesses were deciding not to reimburse executives for the dues they paid to clubs that discriminated against minorities. Wells Fargo Bank banned meetings at discriminatory clubs in October 1975, and Bank of America was also one of the first, announcing moreover that it would not itself maintain such memberships, nor would it sponsor events anywhere "unless all business guests who should attend can attend." Mayor Tom Bradley's office announced that he would no longer attend meetings at either the Jonathan or the California clubs. But a survey made by the Wall Street Journal in May 1976 "indicated that most companies felt any rules could be dodged," primarily by giving employees a salary increase instead of paying their club fees."B of A Breaks With Discriminatory Clubs," Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1976, page E-10 Library card required
Responding to letters from the Jewish Federation Council, California Club president Luther Anderson wrote in September 1975 that the club "has no membership policy of any sort, and that individual decisions are made by an autonomous admissions committee over which the board of directors has no control." A year later, on October 1, 1976, the council mailed letters to top officials at 160 major corporations in Southern California, urging them not to hold meetings or functions at the California Club and to "reconsider" their policies of paying club membership dues for their executives.
In July 1978, the Los Angeles Times reported that Glenn Dumke, chancellor of the California State University system, belonged to the California Club and the Bohemian Club, while Paul F. Romberg, president of San Francisco State University, was a member of the Bohemian Club and Alistair W. McCrone, president of Humboldt State University, belonged to the Ingomar Club. Dumke and Romberg paid their membership fees with privately donated money, but McCrone used state money for his fees.Don Speich, "11 State University-College Officials in Private Clubs," Los Angeles Times, July 31, 1978 Library card required
Policy changes
The Bohemian Club did make a push in 1970 for blacks to join up. Some, like Ernest J. Gaines, the first black person to be awarded a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University, declined to join because he was "just sort of tired of being the first to go into things," and he doubted he "would have found people with whom he could discuss [Ernest] Hemingway." Cecil Poole, who was a black federal appeals judge, also would not join.
In 1976 the California Club admitted a Jew, Harold Brown, the United States Secretary of Defense and former president of the California Institute of Technology, "several years after he was first nominated for membership" by Franklin David Murphy, chairman of the board of the Times-Mirror Company, and after "a protracted struggle among club members."Barry Siegel, "Pressures Mount Against Discrimination," Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1976, page F-1 Library card required
Jews were admitted to membership about 1966 in the Los Angeles Chancery Club, for attorneys, and in 1976 there was one black Chancery Club member — Sam Williams, president-elect of the County Bar Association.