Recognizing the historical and cultural significance of the Langston Golf Course and its contributions to racial equality.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 526) recognizing the 70th anniversary of John Mercer Langston Golf Course, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to add any extraneous materials.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am pleased to present House Resolution 526 for consideration. This legislation recognizes the historical and cultural significance of the John Mercer Langston Golf Course as well as its contributions to achieving racial equality.

Introduced by my colleague, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, on June 10, 2009, H. Res. 526 enjoys the support of 50 Members of Congress. In addition, a Senate companion bill to this legislation, Senate Resolution 162, was introduced by Senator Russ Feingold, and was subsequently passed by the United States Senate on May 21, 2009, by unanimous consent.

Madam Speaker, over the course of its 70-year history, the John Mercer Langston Golf Course has stood as a symbol of the struggle for racial equality in the District of Columbia and across our Nation. In addition, the Langston Golf Course continues to serve as a regional hub for the promotion of golf as a recreational and as a professional sport in the Greater Washington, D.C., area as well as being an invaluable community institution dedicated to providing greater educational opportunities to area residents.

Located alongside the Anacostia River in northeast Washington, D.C., the Langston Golf Course was constructed in the mid-1930s in response to the exclusion of African Americans from all but one of the District's public golf courses. Appropriately, the Langston Golf Course was named in honor of a renowned African American educator and political figure, John Mercer Langston, who founded and became the first dean of the Howard University School of Law, the first president of Virginia State University and, in 1888, the first African American Congressman elected to represent the State of Virginia.

From its official opening in 1939, the Langston Golf Course has served as the home course of the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club--the Nation's first clubs for African American men and women. In addition, the Langston Golf Course has consistently attracted a variety of outstanding African American golfers, including Ted Rhodes, Calvin Peete, Jim Thorpe, and Lee Elder, who, along with his wife, Rose, managed the course during the 1970s.

Moreover, as home of the widely known Capital City Open Golf Tournament, the Langston Golf Course has attracted a variety of prominent Americans from the world of politics, sports, and entertainment, including President Gerald Ford, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, and comedian Bob Hope.

Today, the Langston Golf Course continues to serve the general public by offering year-round educational and golf instruction designed to promote the sport of golf as well as educational opportunities in the Washington, D.C., community.

In 2002, the Langston Golf Course entered into a partnership with Howard University to establish the Interpretive Educational Center, a learning facility that offers comprehensive child and adult educational programs as well as life skills workshops. Additionally, for over 15 years, the Langston Golf Course has served as the home course for three junior golf programs--the Masons Army, the Junior Boys and Girls, and the First Tee, D.C. Collectively, the program participants are known as the ``Jimmy Garvin All-Stars'' in honor of Langston's longtime general manager, community leader and member of the African American Golfers Hall of Fame, Jimmy Garvin. Notably, these juniors must utilize the Interpretive Education Center as a prerequisite to learning golf and to using the Langston facilities.

Overall, the junior programs at Langston Golf Course include the participation of over 200 local boys and girls. In addition to offering golf instruction, they focus on cultivating

principles of honesty and integrity as well as highlighting the interrelationship between excellence on the golf course and excellence in the classroom.

Notably, the Langston Golf Course is also home to the annual Jimmy Garvin Legacy Scholarship Tournament. Proceeds from the tournament are donated to Langston's Interpretive Educational Center in furtherance of Langston's mission of teaching the sport of golf to area youth while also developing them as higher learners.

Madam Speaker, in recognition of its historical and cultural significance, the Langston Golf Course was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1991. It is my hope that we can further honor this distinguished community institution through the passage of House Resolution 526. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting House Resolution 526.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield 5 minutes to the lead sponsor of this resolution, the very capable Representative from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Madam Speaker, I just want to ask all of our colleagues to join with the lead sponsor of this resolution, Eleanor Holmes Norton. And I

must confess that I have had the opportunity to travel out to--Langston is about 10 minutes from my house, so I have been out there. I've seen the youth programs that they have had. Absolutely fantastic. Jim Garvin does a wonderful job there as the groundskeeper and general manager, the crew there. You can tell the way the people there who run and maintain that golf course, they understand the history. They understand the importance of the Langston Golf Course from when it was home to the Negro Golf League during the days of segregation, and they understand going forward what a treasure it really is. So I am particularly happy to call on our Members to support House Resolution 526.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the chairman for his courtesy and generosity and for his help in perfecting this resolution. I thank the gentlewoman on the other side as well. I thank them both for the excellent history of Langston they have offered this morning, up to and including its present-day facilities, not only to serve golfers but to serve the children of the District of Columbia.

Madam Speaker, I will endeavor not to repeat what they have said but will only indicate why I have brought the bill forward at this time and especially during this month, Black History Month, when I know Members look for reasons in history, particularly in living history, to celebrate African American contributions to American life.

So why do I choose a golf course--I who do not know an iron from a tee? I choose a golf course because I am in such great admiration of this golf course, which has served the people of the District of Columbia for now over 70 years and which was started even before I was born, when young women, apparently not the male golfers who predominated then and predominate now, insisted that there had to be somewhere for African Americans to play golf.

What Members may not recognize is that the District of Columbia was a legally segregated city. It was segregated by the Congress of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education was brought by five jurisdictions. One of them was the District of Columbia. It was one of the Brown cases. Every part of this city was segregated except the buses. When these women found that they could not play on the public golf courses here, they petitioned the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, for the right to play golf like everyone else.

The Federal Government did something that it has never done before and has never done since. It started a segregated golf course. The Federal Government had not done that before. It didn't buy in to Jim Crow, For this was long after the Civil War. But in order to have a golf course in a segregated city, you had to have a black golf course, so that is what we got. This golf course became nationally known because many celebrities came to Washington and it was the golf course that black celebrities had to play on from Joe Lewis to Members of Congress who today are frequent players at the Langston the golf course.

This golf course is one of the great undervalued properties in the District of Columbia. It has gotten great interest from people who want to remake golf courses. Because of its historic significance, they see it as a real prize.

My hat is off to Jimmy Garvin, whom you have mentioned in your remarks, both of you have mentioned in your remarks, because what Jimmy Garvin has done is to build up a golf course which was built on a trash dump. I don't think that's so bad today. We want to build more on tire dumps so that we can make greater use of what we are throwing away. But it certainly indicated where this golf course came then, and, of course, it is not in the best condition today.

I have also introduced the Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act of 2009, and long ago I recognized that the Federal Government and National Park Service were not in a position to make this into a class A golf course, but along with the East Potomac Park and Rock Creek Golf Course--imagine a city with three golf courses--my bill would indeed form a public/private partnership so that the money would essentially come from the private sector.

If we look at Black History Month as a way to celebrate not only where black people have been but where they are, it's important to understand the institutions that they revered and that they preserved and still preserve because those institutions, for example, as we now see black golfers now regularly on golf courses, had they not been present, then of course there would have been no way for black people to play golf at all. So we were grateful even for a segregated golf course. Black people in the District of Columbia indeed were very grateful that Harold Ickes, in fact, answered the petition with a golf course. And today, close to 71 years later, we should, I think, pay tribute not only to the fact that if that was the only way to do it, that's what the Federal Government did, but we've now come to a time in this city when every facility is open to everyone.

We cherish this golf course for its great history and particularly those who keep that history alive like Jimmy Garvin and the Langston Golf Course.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 526, recognizing the historical and cultural significance of the Langston Golf Course and its contributions to racial equality.

Opening its doors in 1939, the Langston Golf Course has been both a meeting ground and a playground for thousands of African American golfers. During a time when African American golfers were prohibited from playing at most Washington, D.C., golf courses, unless it was caddie day, women from the Wake Robin Golf Club pressed for the desegregation of the District of Columbia's public courses by drafting and introducing a petition on their behalf to the Secretary of the Interior under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Named after the noted professor and first African American Congressman from Virginia, John Mercer Langston, the once nine-hole course was the first and only course built by the United States Government as a segregated ``African Americans only'' facility. Home to the Royal Golf Club and Wake Robin Golf Club, Langston was expanded into an 18-hole course in 1955, and is listed in the National Register of Historical Places.

This year, the golf course celebrates its 70th anniversary. Over the years, the venue has attracted many famous African American golfers, including Lee Elder, who once had a contract to manage the facility; Ted Rhodes, considered one of the greatest African American players in the 1940s and 1950s; and Calvin Peete.

The course, which today counts about 25,000 rounds played a year, has recently drawn a diverse group of devoted players of all ages, genders, and races to its challenging 6,500-yard, par-72 layout. Thousands of these players are children from all races and economic backgrounds from surrounding neighborhoods who have found a safe haven for pursuing education and for learning life lessons from the game of golf. For more than 15 years, three junior golf programs have made Langston their home--Masons Army, Langston Junior Boys and Girls, and the First Tee, D.C. The Langston Golf Course is also known as the home of the internationally renowned Capital City Open Pro-Am Tournament and as the Jimmy Garvin Legacy Scholarship Tournament.

Owned by the National Park Service, the Langston Golf Course has a long history of accessibility to all, and today, we recognize this historical facility which for 70 years has been patronized year-round by the famous as well as by young people, by regional residents, and by tourists alike.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support H. Res. 526, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H. Res. 526, a resolution to recognize the 70th anniversary of John Mercer Langston Golf Course. This bill was introduced by Representative Norton of D.C., and I am a proud co-sponsor of this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

As a result of segregation during the early 20th century, African- American golfers were unable to enjoy a round of golf at public courses within the District of Columbia. As a result, the John Mercer Langston Golf Course was built in 1939 as a golf course that African-Americans could call their own.

The course was named for John Mercer Langston who, in 1855, became the first African-American elected to public office. He was the founder and first dean of Howard University's Law Department, now the Howard University School of Law. He was the first president of Virginia State University, and the first African-American congressman elected from Virginia. The golf course was originally built with only nine holes; however, today it is a full 18-hole golf course. The unique history of this golf course was recognized in 1991, when the first nine holes were placed on the National Register tor Historic Places.

The John Mercer Langston Golf Course is the home course to the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, the Nation's first golf clubs for African-American men and women. Today, there are plans underway to upgrade the course to championship quality and to include a museum and a new clubhouse.

Over its 70-year existence, the Langston Golf Course has attracted many famous African-American golfers, such as Lee Elder, Calvin Peete, and Jim Thorpe, who all made regular stops when they were unable to play regularly on the racially restricted PGA Tour. The John Mercer Langston Golf Course is also home to the Capital City Open, a renowned event that has attracted participants such as Bob Hope, former president Gerald Ford, and Joe Louis. As a result of the long history of the John Mercer Langston Golf Course, it will forever be associated with the development and desegregation of public golfing and recreational facilities in the Nation's capital.

Since its construction in 1939, the John Mercer Langston Golf Course became a beacon for desegregation in recreational facilities. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this resolution, and recognize the 70th anniversary of this historic golf course.