Philadelphia Private Swim Club Forces Out Black Children
Update: The public email and phone number for The Valley Swim Club is 215-947-0700 and info@thevalleyclub.com. The President of the club is John Duesler.
Updated July 9: The Michael Smerconish Program interviewed an eyewitness named "Jan," who is a member of The Valley Swim Club. Jan says the children from The Creative Steps Day Camp were very well-behaved, and the camp supervisors were highly attentive. This puts a dent in the argument that, perhaps, the children were behaving in an overly rowdy fashion, which is why they were ejected.
NBC reports that more than 60 African-American campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club because -- according to John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club -- "there was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion ... and the atmosphere of the club."
It may surprise some Americans to learn that not only do certain private clubs still refuse to admit African-Americans, women, and gay people, but that this kind of enrollment discrimination is considered perfectly legal.
While the total number of private clubs is unknown, there are around at least 4,000 private golf clubs, according to Golf Digest. Of course, since these clubs are private, their exact enrollment standards aren't part of the public record, so there is no way to know for sure if they discriminate against ethnic minorities, women, or homosexuals. Furthermore, even if they do adopt official "white males only" policies, these practices are considered "legal" in some jurisdictions, though many clubs have been sued for discrimination.
Because of the shroud of secrecy surrounding enrollment at private clubs, these discriminatory practices usually only come to light when the media catches a prominent politician on the fairway. Katon Dawson, South Carolina GOP chairman and former candidate for the RNC chair, was forced to resign from the Forest Lake Club after members made public the fact that the club has a whites-only restriction and no black members. Then there was Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who hosted a golf fundraiser at a whites-only club back in 2000 along with then-lawmakers Bob Ney and Tom DeLay.
Back in 1992, Bill Clinton was accused of attending an all-white private golf club, though Mark Grobmeyer, the Little Rock lawyer who played at the club with Clinton, denied there was a "no blacks" policy. Why were there no black players then? Mr. Grobmeyer replied, "None have applied."
President Kennedy was once challenged by future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, over his membership at the Links Country Club because the club excluded Jews from membership. President Kennedy reportedly chuckled and replied, "Hell, Arthur, they don't even allow Catholics."
This recent case of discrimination at the Philadelphia club is merely a continuation of discriminatory admission standards. Such official bans on non-Anglo Saxon men may seem superfluous considering outrageous membership fees are usually enough deterrence to keep non-white people off the golf courses and out of the pools, but when The Creative Steps Day Camp managed to pay the $1900 for their young campers to enter The Valley Swim Club, the staff resorted to drastic measures.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
Remarks like that make it difficult to remember that it's 2009. According to attorney Benjamin Leedy, another shameful episode occurred a little over a decade ago when Hall Thompson, founder of the all-white Shoal Creek club in Birmingham, AL (site of the 1990 PGA Championship,) declared that his club would not be pressured into accepting African-American members. "This is our home, and we pick and choose who we want," he said.
Leedy cites another recent example in 2003 at the Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, where Martha Burke, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, demanded that the club allow women to become members. Hootie Johnson chairman of Augusta National, responded "There may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership, but that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bayonet."
In 2001, Birgit Koebke and Kendall French, a lesbian couple registered as domestic partners under the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003, sued Bernardo Heights Country Club alleging that the club discriminated against them on the basis of sexual orientation. The club's membership privileges were only available to members' spouses and children, but not to members' domestic partners. In 2005, the California Supreme Court concluded "that since, under California law, registered domestic partners have rights equivalent to legal spouses, the question of whether the club's practice of granting playing privileges to members' spouses but not to members' registered domestic partners constituted unlawful discrimination under California's anti-discrimination law must be left to a jury decide."
This most recent case of discrimination in Philadelphia is particularly sinister because it involves banishing children. "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
What a terrible lesson to teach two children -- one white and one black. The white child learns to fear those who are different from them. The black child learns there is something "wrong" and "dirty" about their very existence. Hopefully, another more enlightened swim club will welcome the campers from The Creative Steps Day Camp, who are now looking for a place to keep cool during the summer.
Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog. Also available on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny
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Here is all you need to know about this situation. If that had been 65 white kids coming to the pool, they would not have been kicked out. Period.
As for the amount of space, 65 kids is a lot, etc. Well, the pool is 110,000 gallons, which means it can accomodate about 300 people swimming, about 3,000 people just playing around. So, there was PLENTY of space for the other kids.
And, lastly, these kids from Philly were only going to be there Monday afternoons through early August. So, really, what was the big deal? The bottom line is these snotty Montgomery County people did not want their precious little white kids around black and hispanic kids.
But what can you do? All I can say is Karma will get these people in some way.
300 people, mostly kids, in a swimming pool, sounds dangerous. I nearly drowned in a pool with fewer than 20 kids in or about it -- the life guard didn't notice I was having trouble cause he was chatting with a pretty girl. Accidents happen so quickly.
As a former lifeguard, 65 kids would require three or four guards to supervise, assuming everyone was a good swimmer.
There was another day camp of 25 minorities that had their contract canceled. Their Director agreed that 25 kids overwhelmed the pool, the staff and the other members.
I don't know.....something is strange about this....
While the woman may very well have made an off color remark, that doesn't mean it's the policy of the club.
Why would the the President of the pool allow the group to sign up for membership in the first place if he knew they were minorities and then - as the parents stated - have pool attendants come around saying they don't allow minorities? That doesn't make sense. A policy is a policy - either you do or you don't.
Also, what is the size of the pool? If I saw a group of 65 kids coming into the pool I'd probably pull my kid out too. Groups tend to be rowdy, especially at that age. Heck I get annoyed when there's like 10 kids around, so while they were probably behaving, just the size of the group would be intimidating. Plus, if I were paying $395 a year for membership, I'd expect it to be a calmer place than a public pool.
It would also be interesting to see if there were minority members of the club. One of the sites out of Philly had a quote from a woman who has a biracial son who said they'd never had a problem at the club.
That's the point: they didn't know till the campers turned up. They assumed only white ppl can afford to send their kids to a day camp.
The charged $1900 for 65 kids - $30 a kid instead of the regular $395.....they were getting a discount so they didn't really assume anything.
Valley Swim Club accepted $1900 as payment *for admission* to their pool. They have been in breach of contract since asking the children of The Creative Steps Day Camp to leave. No property ownership allows false advertising or violation of contract.
They'd have to have a contract besides just purchasing memberships. When they returned the $ to the Group they no longer had any ties. If they'd kept the money, they'd be in breach.
False. The sale of the ticket, for the purpose of admission, is commitment to honor the ticket for the purpose of admission. They may offer a refund, giving all their customers the option of reversing the transaction if they decide they are unsatisfied, but no proprietor or seller of anything has the option to reverse a sale once it's transacted unless the payment tendered is counterfeit, which is not part of this story.
These people have confused their prejudices with their "rights" and perverted the ideals which make this country potentially great.
By race
In 2007, the races of the 6,965 known hate crime offenders were as follows:
62.9 percent were white.
20.8 percent were black.
4.9 percent were groups made up of individuals of various races (multiple races, group).
1.0 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native.
0.7 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander.
9.8 percent were unknown.
wow
No hispanics at all?
Okay, now do them per capita within each group. The "wow" will be much different.
Allison, since you like to write about black-and-white issues, I would love to hear your thoughts about this story that happened on 4th of July? I'd like to hear everybody elses thoughts, also? (see below)
http://www.ohio.com/news/50172282.html
I think this is horrible (if true)... I don't agree with racial violence under any circumstances. I think that Allison is attacking a History and Legacy of violence, racism, etc.. that has disproportionately directed at black people in the United States. I'm not going to be the white guy that digs up a story like the one you're citing, only to have a black person throw over 400 years of newspaper reports and documented violence and murder directed at them... Perspective (historically) is necessary to avoid this trap Steamboat.
If this story is true at face value, this is a hate crime.
But to have a mob of more than 50 black teens rampaging through the streets of Akron, and nobody but the Marshall family and two friends saw them.....? That is less believable.
If this is corroborated by others, then I will stand with you.
Who said that they were the only one who saw a mob
I think this whole thing about getting into private clubs is ridiculous. Why in the hell would you want to surround yourself or be in a club with people who do not value you and who don't want to be around you. You are not proving anything to them. They don't want any part of you in their private life so give it a rest , stop trying to make them accept you. We need equality in government, and in the workforce that is where things need to be equal , private clubs are ridiculous. If there is so much interest by minorities to have a membership in a club then why don't a bunch of rich minorites(women, ethnic minorites, and homosexuals) just build clubs that have much more open policy. Nothing is stopping anyone from forming their own clubs.
ahhh the subtle guise of seperate but equal dressed in a 2009 cloak of private ownership... But you're right (100%) private clubs can discriminate. Let's check their books to be certain that they haven't received any public funding... I've seen these PRIVATE CLUB claims many times in my field of work... you'd be surprised how many of them get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
Quite frankly I don't think people understand the issue here and yes mainly white people. I have to put it like that, I'm sorry call me a racist now. The issue with me is that these are children and the club is sending a negative message. Pretty much these kids both white and black are told that in this society whites and blacks can still be separate, given the fact that they have the "right" to be separate. The club yes maybe separate, but its the message that they are sending the children. Wake up and realize that America still has a race problem and deal with with. Get your heads out the clouds.
limon, why don't you try comprehending the article before you condemn others intelligence.
Your comment is based on your opinion and theory while condeming all white people while giving people the idea that white people are superior. Wrong, thanks for playing
Would you like all people including the children get a valuable lesson. Forget race. A contract was signed. Money was offered and accepted making a valid contract. The kids should be allowed to use all facilites as stated in the contract for the life of the contract.
Everyone running off on a tangent about private clubs and racism is revealing nothing but our own guilt. Use the facts and make the private club honor its contract
I wonder did they get their $1900 back?
What is wrong in this? Its a private club. I am a brown gay and I don't think we should be infringing upon the right to private property
Selling the tickets then refusing to honor the purchased right to use of the pool is breach of contract. Besides which, private ownership does not exempt one from Civil Rights Law. It's obvious from the fact that the tickets were sold in the first place that the swim club does not have genuinely selective standards. It's just racist, and therefore illegal.
http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/543124
Infringing upon private property rights is wrong whether it is under Civil Rights or any other rights
It's not a breach of contract when they return the consideration.....if they even had a contract.
It's a "private" club. Last time I checked, private meant private. Who really cares? It seems to me this article is trying to create an issue where there is none. Leave the people alone for crying out loud. Here in my area you can't walk into the local Moose Lodge and order a drink unless you are or are with a "member". I don't here anyone screaming discrimination! Please, get over it!
duhhh they paid for access all summer
they took their money
then when they saw them, they said oh no
this could change the complexion of the pool
really......................
jsut because you defend makes it no less dicriminatory
This is flat out discrimination. Sick, twisted and disgusting. If you can look into the eyes of any child and tell them they aren't "good enough" then you are not worth the air that you breathe. Giving these idiots the "go ahead" based on being a private club doesn't make this practice any less despicable and doesn't make them any less than the garbage that they are. "I have the right to" or "The law says I can" or "Social issues play a part" may keep these big0ts out of the court room but it certainly doesn't make them decent human beings or hide the fact that they wouldn't know what true class is if stood in front of them.
So, one camper overhears one swim club member say something horribly offensive, and that's it? It's proven that the whole issue is racially motivated? Is it possible that the pool management saw dollar signs, agreed to the contract and didn't thoroughly think through the implications of having 65 rambunctious kids descend on their medium-sized pool for 90 minutes, whereupon the members viscerally reacted, and in one instance said something profoundly racist and vulgar?
I think it's telling that the swim club has holed and gone incommunicado. When you're digging yourself into a hole the first thing to do is to stop digging. Maybe it was racially motivated, I don't know. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a mistake.
My point is, how are we ever going to get over our deepseated emotionally charged feelings of anger, and fear if we explode into making hasty determinations of guilt and generalizations about the character and motivations of the participants involved in incidents like these, the true origins of which are unclear at best. Thanks, Allison. Way to stir the pot.
Signed Liberal in Philly
in sexual harassment cases all it takes is for one person even if unrelated to the conversation, to hear it and be offended, and you have a case........
not to mention these are children
They took their money, then kicked them out.
Racially motivated or not, it sends a bad message.
They returned the money.
Why the seemingly out-of-the-blue knock on private golf clubs? The organization in question here is a swim club. Sure, there have been instances of discrimination at golf clubs over the years, but today all but a handful of private golf clubs have non-discrimination policies written into their charters. (A USA Today survey ca. 2003 confirmed this.) The statement "Of course, since these clubs are private, their exact enrollment standards aren't part of the public record, so there is no way to know for sure if they discriminate against ethnic minorities, women, or homosexuals" implies guilt by association. The way to find out about clubs' policies is to call them and ask. If they don't discriminate, then they'll most likely want you to know. In the current economic times, many private golf clubs are also lowering dues, waiving initiation fees and making tee times available to the public - lowering yet another barrier to membership. The actions of the swim club in Philadelphia are indeed obnoxious, but please don't paint golf clubs with the same broad brush.
The Swim Club acted outside the law. A nearly identical case has already been decided (thanks mmgth for the case) in another neighborhood of Philadelphia, meaning a fully applicable precedent is already established for this jurisdiction, meaning there is no legal gray area. Mere "membership" is an insufficient dodge without "genuinely selective" admission standards, to escape the "place of public accommodation" category with respect to civil rights law.
http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/543124
paragraph 7:
First, the court concluded that LSC's membership process was not genuinely selective. Essential to this conclusion was the court's finding that "LSC possesses no objective criteria or standards for admission." The court identified four "criteria" for admission to LSC: being interviewed, completing an application, submitting two letters of recommendation and tendering payment of fees. We agree, and LSC apparently concedes, that these criteria were not genuinely selective.4 Nonetheless, LSC challenges the court's failure to consider membership approval a criterion for admission. We agree with the district court, however, that a formal procedure requiring nothing more than membership approval is insufficient to show genuine selectivity. See Tillman, 410 U.S. at 438-39, 93 S.Ct. at 1094-95.
The club spokesperson's poor choice of words nothwithstanding, it would be hard to prove that the the swim club's decision to back out of the deal was racially motivated. Do you really think that the swim club people didn't realize the color of the camp's children until they showed up? Huntington Valley and the Northeast are separated by just a few miles. Of course they knew. It 's possible that it wasn't until the kids showed up and the reality of having all those kids there and its impact on the swim club members was fully understood. Does anyone take the biracial kid at his word that he never was discrimnated against or heard any negative comments? Way to rush to judgment.
"The club spokesperson's poor choice of words notwithstanding, it would be hard to prove that the the swim club's decision to back out of the deal was racially motivated."
So, what then, it was "just" recreational breach of contract?
You automatically assumed because of their location that they were all Black......Says a bit about you I think....
Private clubs should be able to restrict membership...but when their membership restrictions are discriminatory, we need to be able to make damn sure they're receiving ABSOLUTELY no benefit from the federal, state or local governments while they exercise this "priviledge." As long as that's the case, I say more power to them! But I'm confused -- how is it possible for these folks to take the money for membership/use of the pool and then after the fact refuse to provide the services paid for? I say sue the pants off these folks for breach of contract! If the club doesn't bother to carry out its own due diligence to keep themselves as pristine as they want their private club status to keep them, that's their tough cookie. Maybe they need to post clear signs on their property or make sure the contract explicitly states their exclusionary criteria. But then, on the other hand, maybe they just want to be closet racists...Sorry folks, in these days and times, you can't have it both ways.
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