History Behind Wake-Robin, First Black Women's Golf Club Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.
Oldest Black Women s Golf Club in the Nation Plays the Long Game
Wake-Robin provides competition connection and an important legacy
Members of the Wake-Robin Golf Club in 1938. Getty Images Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. But Wake-Robin’s reach now goes beyond gathering talented golfers to hit balls and perfect putts. The club participates in golf clinics for kids, raises funds for food drives, donates to women’s shelters and supports young Black women who want to pursue a career on the links. Despite Tiger Woods’ success, there are fewer Black female professional golfers today than there were in the 1970s. Wake-Robin hopes to change that. The Washington D.C.-based club was founded by 13 Black women who gathered at the home of Helen Webb Harris, an educator and golf widow, a term applied to women whose husbands spend a lot of time on the links. Many of their husbands played golf during the restricted hours set aside for African Americans on public courses. These men were doctors, lawyers and businessmen, members of the Black bourgeoisie and also members of a club called the Royal Golf Club. The women wanted their own club. “I just thought it was the stupidest thing that you could do — going around putting a little white ball in a hole. Now it’s the most challenging thing that I have in my life.” — Phyllis Stevenson -Jenkins “I’m involved with this group because of the legacy,” says Kimberly Robinson, 56, president of the club, adds. “When these 13 women started Wake-Robin, we had no representation. Their husbands were out playing golf, but [the wives] could not play golf. There wasn’t a course for women, and there wasn’t a course for Black women.” A place in history
Today, Wake-Robin’s members range in age from 20 to 90, and they share a passion for golf and a commitment to preserving the rich history of the organization, Robinson says. Wake-Robins, as they are known, meet at clubhouses and the homes of members. They commit to playing in tournaments and supporting charities. They play at and travel to tournaments where they go up against other Black female golfers. But in the 1930s, Black women didn’t have many place s to play. were in effect, and Black people were excluded from public courses with slim five- to six-hour windows available, once a week. With such limited time for Black men to play, Black women had even less access to courses. AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe published in The Journal of African American History. Honey Wade points Velina Sutton to her golf ball down the fairway. Courtesy of Wake-Robin Golf Club The name Wake-Robin comes from a deep-purple flower native to the Mid-Atlantic, the epicenter of the Black upper class at the time. Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > In 1938, Wake-Robin members sent a petition to then-Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, urging him to public golf courses. That activism inspired Black women around the country, and soon Black female golf clubs were established in Chicago, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Philadelphia and New York City. In 1939, Ickes approved the first golf course constructed solely for African Americans. Built on the site of an abandoned landfill near the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., Langston Golf Course was named after John Mercer Langston, Howard University’s first law school dean and the first Black Virginian elected to Congress. The course remains open today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Langston became the primary meeting place for the Wake-Robin group . The club continues its practice of evaluating every potential member’s golf game before she can join. Wake-Robin member Paulette Savoy, 76, a real estate broker from Waldorf, Maryland, has been a golfer since she was in her 30s. That was around the time a friend, who was a member of the club, assessed her potential. “She would say, ‘You’re almost good enough. You’ve just got to improve a little more,’ ” Savoy says. “Now we let in beginners and work with them and encourage them to improve their games.” Richetta Johnson, 74, a retired Howard University administrator who has been a member since 1989, recalls the day she first encountered the Wake-Robins. Playing at a local course, a couple of members noticed Johnson, pulled her aside and asked, “Do you play golf?” “I could tell they were players, that they were really good,” Johnson says. Despite being a novice, Johnson got an invite anyway. Members helped her improve her game. AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS