Birmingham Blacks Await Club’s Call : Golf: Two businessmen have interest in joining Shoal Creek, but neither has been approached by officials at PGA site.

Two black Birmingham, Ala., businessmen interested in joining the all-white Shoal Creek Country Club, site of the PGA Championship golf tournament next month, said Monday that they have yet to be contacted about applying for membership.

One of the men, Jim White, a former revenue commissioner for the state, said he sees little chance of a black gaining membership approval in time to avert a planned protest of the event Aug. 9-12.

White, a Birmingham certified public accountant who served as Alabama revenue commissioner from 1983 to ‘87, and Donald Watkins, a Birmingham attorney, said no Shoal Creek official has spoken with them about becoming members.

The usual procedure with Shoal Creek Country Club--and many other country clubs--is for a member to approach an aspirant to determine his interest in joining.

White and Watkins had publicly expressed interest in the club last Thursday, the day Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington announced that Shoal Creek representatives had promised that the club was “fully and formally committed to a policy of non-discrimination in the selection of new members.”

Since then, White and Watkins, both of whom play golf and say they could easily afford the $35,000 Shoal Creek initiation fee, have heard nothing from the club.

“Hopefully, we can get it resolved,” White said. “But I don’t see a lot of hope for it. I’ve been surprised in that area before, but if it gets past the PGA (Championship), then it will be a long time. It will be a while (before a black becomes a Shoal Creek member). And if they were to name a black member before Aug. 9, I don’t think it will be Donald or myself.”

White said he feels Shoal Creek would rather its first black member be less vocal than Watkins or himself. He also indicated that he suspected that the club would prefer its first black member be someone not tied to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which has vocally opposed Shoal Creek’s policy.

White said that he will withdraw his name from consideration if he isn’t asked to join the club by Aug. 9. He said this despite Shoal Creek’s insistence that it takes up to six months to complete the interview and background process.

“How long does it take you to get a mortgage?” White said. “This is a crisis. It’s come to the point to take crisis steps. They know I’m financially able to do it. I’m a golfer and I care about my city. But as far as I’m concerned, if the (situation) isn’t resolved before the tournament, then my interest stops.”

Watkins, who has law offices in both Birmingham and Montgomery, said he is more concerned with Shoal Creek’s vow of non-discrimination than he is with the six-month wait.

“Either they’re interested in us or they’re not,” he said. “I hope that we will be offered applications. If the application process goes forward, I intend to look closely at the members of that club to see if they match my standards of character. I’m sure they will be doing the same with me.”

Watkins recently considered joining another private club in the Birmingham area, but decided to try Shoal Creek shortly after its founder, Hall Thompson, was quoted in the Birmingham Post-Herald as saying that the club would not be pressured into inviting blacks as members.

“My current interest in Shoal Creek is for the good of the city,” Watkins said. “If it’s not resolved by Friday, I don’t know how it will be resolved. I think the protesters will be out there after that.”

The Rev. Abraham Woods, president of the Birmingham chapter of the SCLC, was meeting with officials at Shoal Creek Monday. The meeting came on the heels of a proposal delivered to Shoal Creek during the weekend by the SCLC in an attempt to avoid protests planned around the tournament.

“We would like something concrete to come forward so we would not have to demonstrate,” said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Atlanta-based SCLC. “We need something more than saying ‘Someday, in the by and by, we’ll have black members.’ ”

According to Woods, plans are under way to picket Shoal Creek, the Birmingham airport and local businesses known to have memberships at the club. The preparations continue, said Woods, because Shoal Creek “has not shown they really are desirous of having black membership. In writing, they say they are open, but that’s just on paper. We know things can stay on paper for years and years.”