Desegregation of Lions Municipal Golf Course

Emma Long, the councilwoman who proposed opening the courses, was the first woman on the Austin city council. Born in Lefors in 1912, she graduated from the University of Texas in 1936 and with her husband Stuart ran the Long News Service at the Capitol, covering it for twenty-six Texas papers. Elected in 1948, she worked on streets, parks, libraries and golf courses, and backed desegregation of public facilities. She was reelected in 1963, served as the first woman mayor pro tem in 1967-69, and in 1984 the city named Emma Long Metropolitan Park for her.

What the plaque says

Desegregation of Lions Municipal Golf Course In 1924, local Lions Club members formed the Austin Municipal Golf and Amusement Association to open the first public golf course in the city. The association leased part of the Brackenridge tract from the University of Texas, and by the fall of that year had converted the heavily wooded land into a nine-hole facility. It later added a brick clubhouse and expanded the course to 18 holes, retaining the name "Lions Municipal" or "Muny" after transfer of the lease to the City of Austin in 1936. The site is near the historically African American community of Clarksville; yet, while young men from that neighborhood helped build Muny and often worked as caddies, a system of segregation at public recreational facilities kept African American citizens from playing the course. In 1950, Mayor Taylor Glass anticipated building a separate, segregated course. However, some city council members thought it was not a cost-effective measure, and on April 5, 1951, councilwoman Emma Long suggested African American golfers be allowed to use existing public courses. Two black youths forced the city's ultimate decision by walking onto Muny and playing golf. Authorities decided to let them complete their groundbreaking round, ushering in an era of de facto integration at Muny. Although at least one segregated event was held after this and segregated clubhouses were maintained, play on the course was otherwise integrated. The quiet desegregation at Muny preceded access at other public courses, as well as federal public accommodation legislation, by several years, drawing African American golfers to Austin from around the state. Some scholars consider this the earliest integration of a public golf course in the southern United States. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Barton Springs Pool — 1.9 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• Mount Bonnell — 2.0 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.
• Harry Ransom Center — 2.0 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 2.2 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.

More markers nearby

• Clarksville — 1.0 mi
• Lilia and Josephine Casis — 1.1 mi
• Travis County — 1.2 mi
• Judge Calvin M. Cureton — 1.5 mi