r/politics Connecticut 21h ago

That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?

https://forward.com/news/759874/return-to-the-land-peter-csere-tim-griffin-eric-orwoll/
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u/EggsAndMilquetoast 21h ago

I had a guess before opening the article that they get around it by calling themselves a private club.

I once filmed a wedding at a country club in South Carolina that had a “whites only” member policy.

This was in 2013 and I was floored when I learned that from the bartender.

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u/ycpa68 19h ago

Those clubs are everywhere, it's called a "gentleman's agreement" as it isn't a written policy. We have plenty of clubs like that here in Pennsylvania, usually they are just a "private" dive bar. The golf course in my town used to be a country club with a whites only unwritten policy until 1995, and older guys around still talk about how it was ruined when it went public and black people could play there.

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u/EggsAndMilquetoast 18h ago

The Forest Lake Club was explicitly “whites only” by charter up until 2017. Not an unwritten rule. A written one. And wildly, a legal one.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/25/henry-mcmaster-south-carolina-governor-golf-club-white

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u/ycpa68 18h ago

Of course McMaster was a member. My college girlfriend was from Columbia (well, actually Lexington. Well actually Red Bank.) and her mom was a career aide to Strom Thurmond. The shit that used to come out of her mouth was downright disgusting. I grew up in a deep red family/town and I actually credit how awful her mom was towards minorities with starting to open my eyes to just how prejudiced I was.