Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford and Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA

Peter May

ISBN 10: 153817801X / ISBN 13: 9781538178010

Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9781538178010

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford and Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 153817801X
• ISBN 13: 9781538178010
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The compelling, little-known story of golfer Charlie Sifford and attorney Stanley Mosk who together made history by taking on the PGA and their Caucasians Only by-law.

It began with a chance meeting at a Los Angeles country club in 1959. That was the day Charlie Sifford, the first Black golfer to get his PGA card, and Stanley Mosk, a crusading attorney general of California and future state Supreme Court justice, met for the first time. Little did either of them know that it would grow into a history-making alliance that would end segregation in professional golf.

In Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford and Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA, Peter May tells the captivating story of Sifford and Mosk’s battle to end the rank racial discrimination that had been codified in the constitution of the PGA. Black golfers who preceded Sifford, such as Bill Spiller and Ted Rhodes, had unsuccessfully challenged the PGA’s discriminatory policy. Sifford had been fighting the PGA for years just to be able to compete with the white players. Mosk had little knowledge of the PGA or the fact that Blacks were being discriminated against by the organization’s by-laws. But the golfer had a cause that the attorney general was only too eager to champion. The two made for a powerful pair.

Changing the Course focuses on the individual journeys of Sifford and Mosk before delving into the crucial intersection of their lives that changed the professional golf world forever. Their stories provide a window into the changing landscape of mid-20th century America when the nation was forced to confront its history of racial injustice in professional sports and beyond.

About the Author

Peter May has spent the last four decades covering sports for the Boston Globe, the New York Times, ESPN, the Hartford Courant, and United Press International. He is the author of five books, most recently Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford and Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA (2024).