Backward Step

Fort Lauderdale's 18-hole municipal golf course, a choice piece of Florida real estate, has been appraised at a cool million dollars. But last week the city commissioners, by a 3-to-2 vote, knocked down the course for $562,400 to the Fort Lauderdale Men's Golf Association, which will henceforth run it as a restricted private club. Reason: a Negro foursome, denied permission to play, had won a Federal Court order to open the course to Negroes.

After the sale Fort Lauderdale golfers heard unhappily that greens fees ($1.50 in summer, $3 in winter) will soon be raised to cover taxes, improvements, and a ten-year $373,400 mortgage. Unhappy also was the city's young (30) Mayor John V. Russell, who voted against the sale, pointed .to other Southern cities, where Negroes seldom appear on integrated courses. Outspoken Mayor Russell outlined a problem worrying many another Dixie city official: "A handful of Negroes can put us out of the recreation business entirely. We have miles of public beaches, a swimming pool, and the finest marina anywhere in the world. The same thing can happen to those facilities that happened to the golf course. The decision to sell is a step backwards in solving our problems."

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