Norton Golf Bills Aim to Improve Golf Courses In The District Of Columbia As Langston Course Celebrates Its 70th Anniversary

Press Release

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the John Mercer Langston Golf Course in Northeast, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton today introduced a resolution noting the anniversary and highlighting the golf course's venerable history. To commemorate the anniversary, Norton also introduced the Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act of 2009, a bill to pave the way for desperately needed investments and improvements at the Langston, Rock Creek and East Potomac golf courses. Investments are needed to reverse the long-term deterioration of these courses and to preserve "these unique, valuable and historical D.C. attractions for the enjoyment of future generations," Norton said. The Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act would allow the National Park Service (NPS), which owns the three courses, to use public-private partnerships to rehabilitate the courses. "Involving public private partnerships is the only way to modernize and rehabilitate the courses today," Norton said.

Norton's bill mandates that all three courses be combined into a single competitive request for proposals in order to generate ideas and alternatives that will lead to renovations while preserving their historic features. Norton said, "All three golf courses are treasures in their own right, but they must be matched with the private market that would be quick to recognize their value and act to make them worthy of the golfing public in the nation's capital."

The site for the historic Langston Golf Course, celebrating its anniversary today, was selected in 1929 following repeated demands of African Americans who were excluded from all but one of the District's public courses, the Lincoln Memorial. Construction however, did not begin until the mid 1930's and in 1938, African American women in the Wake Robin Golf Club pressed for desegregation of the District of Columbia's public courses by drafting and introducing a petition to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. The historic Langston Golf Course was officially opened in 1939 as a segregated golf facility for African Americans and was named for John Mercer Langston, a renowned Howard University educator, prominent political figure and the first African American Congressman from Virginia, elected in 1888. Norton will attend the anniversary celebration tonight at Langston Golf Course.

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