Accord to Prevent PGA Protest Seen Near : Golf: Civil rights group wants all-white Birmingham club to immediately admit city’s black mayor as honorary member with full privileges.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A key civil rights spokesman said today he was “very optimistic†an agreement was near that would lead him to call off protests during next week’s PGA Championship.
The Rev. Abraham Woods, Birmingham president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said, “it seems as if we may be able to put this thing behind us.â€
Woods made his statement hours before civil rights leaders and Shoal Creek officials planned an announcement on the matter.
Woods has threatened to lead protests during the Aug. 9-12 PGA because the founder of the all-white Shoal Creek club, Hall Thompson, said last month that the private club south of Birmingham would not be pressured into accepting black members.
Thompson later apologized, saying his remark had been taken out of context, and the city’s black mayor and others have been working behind the scenes for days to try to defuse the issue.
Woods said in a telephone interview that he was asking that Shoal Creek immediately take in the mayor, Richard Arrington, as an honorary member “with all rights and privileges,†and start the process of accepting two Birmingham blacks who have said they wanted to join as regular, not honorary, members.
“We are hopeful that their response will be such that they will accept it and we can put this thing behind us,†he said.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Atlanta-based SCLC, was to attend the news conference in City Hill along with Arrington, Jim Awtrey, executive director of the PGA, and an unnamed Shoal Creek official.
An honorary membership for Arrington and a start on accepting the two others “would be practice steps,†Woods said. “We’re not fishing for policy steps on paper. Mayor Arrington as an honorary member would break the color barrier. Then they can start the process on other blacks and we can let the process run its course.â€
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Lee Trevino, who won the 1984 PGA at Shoal Creek, said he has decided to take part in this year’s tournament after saying last week he was having second thoughts about it.
“He is planning on being there,†Judy Pierre of Lee Trevino Enterprises said today from Dallas.
Also, Spalding, the nation’s largest golf ball manufacturer, became the latest company to withdraw advertising from the event.
The company had scheduled advertising spots on ESPN, which is televising the first rounds and was considering spots on ABC, which will televise the final two days of the tournament, when it decided not to advertise at all.
Six corporations have canceled television commercials for the event.
A PGA official squelched a rumor that the PGA might make a last-minute move from Shoal Creek to the Concord Hotel in Kiamesha, N.Y., calling it a “publicity stunt†by the hotel.
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