Text from Ohio Historical Marker: “Golfer and World War II veteran William J. Powell, excluded from playing on many American golf courses because of his race, overcame the indignity of discrimination by creating his own course. Hand built in two years and opened in 1948, Clearview Golf Club is the first golf course in the United States designed, built, and owned by an African-American. The acclaimed course harmonizes with the landscape and bears many design elements of traditional British courses. A triumph of perseverance over discrimination, Clearview represents the historic postwar era when athletes first broke the ‘color line’ in American sports.”
Additional information coming soon.
Green Book Cleveland thanks Massillon Museum for the suggestion of this location.
Resources
- “Course History.” Clearview Golf Club. www.clearviewgolfclub.com/coursehistory.
- Demas, Lane. Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.