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September 05, 2002
Just Who Is Hootie Johnson?
Just Who Is Hootie Johnson? That was a question I was asking myself this morning about the Chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club. It seemed over the past few weeks, that Johnson was being turned into a mere caricature, just another Southern "good old boy," doing his best to keep uppity women out of Augusta. But after doing a simple Google Search, it was pretty easy to see that just isn't the case. Here are just a few facts I picked out of a biography I found over at a Web site for the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame: Former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives; A banker by trade who worked his way up the ladder in South Carolina, Johnson now serves as chairman of the executive committee at Bank of America, and is also a director of the company. He's also on the boards of Duke Power, Liberty Corporation and ALLTEL. Not exactly bullet points on a resume from a typical, "good old boy." In fact, it's probably the case that Johnson took a lot of grief in life for his political beliefs at a time when being a liberal in the South was rather a lonely business. To get an idea of what it was like, here's a quote from South Carolina's own, Virginia Postrel. Though the quote below addresses why she thinks so many Southerners in journalism are so reflexively liberal, I think it also sheds a bit of light over the situation at Augusta, and how Johnson has decided to handle it: They're aggressively liberal because their thinking was formed by the civil rights movement, when local conservatives were really, really bad. I am not being ironic when I say that. Unless you were a southern liberal when being "liberal" meant being in the very small minority that believed in ending segregation and treating black people as equals, it is hard to imagine how Manichean the divide was. . . With all this extra background, Johnson's conflict with Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organizations looks a little different now, doesn't it? Say you're Johnson, and you get this letter from Burk basically equating the situation at Augusta with that at Shoal Creek Country Club -- a club that specifically discriminated against African-Americans. Now, as a board member of the National Urban League, you've been working for civil rights for African-Americans for a couple of decades now. While Dr. Burk is nothing more than an ivory tower academic, you've been talking the talk and walking the walk on racial discrimination for your entire adult life. In fact, you're pretty sure you've stared discrimination in the face up close a whole lot more often than Dr. Burk -- something I'm sure he saw at it's ugliest when he helped desegregate South Carolina's colleges and universities. By all accounts, Johnson has been working his membership to prepare them to accept women members that fit Augusta's membership criteria for some time now (as a board member at America's largest bank, Johnson is in a pretty good position to do that). Remember, this isn't a club that takes in just anybody -- something that Microsoft's Bill Gates found out to his chagrin when he tried to wangle himself a membership recently. Even Gates' friendship with current member and Bridge partner Warren Buffet wasn't enough to get it done. And, as a final insult, Burk ignores a number of inconvenient facts about Augusta. Like the fact that women play there as guests regularly -- to the tune of over 1,000 rounds last year. That when women do play at Augusta, they aren't discriminated against in terms of tee times -- a very common practice elsewhere. Finally, when Augusta opens it's gates every year for the Masters, women are welcome along with everyone else. Meanwhile, in Bethesda, Md., a mere 15 minutes from the NCWO HQ in Washington, D.C. is Burning Tree Country Club -- a club that not only refuses to admit women as members, but also refuses to let them even step on the grounds. Why the heck isn't Burk knocking on their door? Admittedly, Augusta doesn't have the greatest track record in terms of inclusiveness, and it's failure to admit Black members for so long will always be a mark against them. But when you look at Johnson's life, it's pretty safe to say he's been working to integrate social, cultural, and business institutions like Augusta all of his life. So, when he gets a letter from a Yankee carpetbagger like Burk, basically accusing him of acting like folks he's been doing battle with his whole life, can any one of us be surprised that he reacted the way he did? POSTSCRIPT: You can also see a short interview with Johnson here. Although it's a canned interview that's part of a tribute to him, I think it tells us quite a bit about what he's really like. If anything, Johnson is soft spoken and unaffected. You can also tell that he hasn't been coached very well on how to act and dress while he's on camera, something that, ironically, actually lends an air of credibility to what he's saying. This guy is getting a bum rap he doesn't deserve, and I wonder how much Northeast media bias has to do with it. Comments
Oh, please!!! Hootie's a real stand up guy, isn't he? Martha Burke suggested that every member of Augusta National be asked to resign from the board of directors of every corporation on which they serve. To set an example, she should make the same demands of every alumnae of Agnes Scott! Posted by: Mike Steele on April 16, 2003 02:33 PMMartha Burke is just like the rest of these damn feemist who don't know what the hell they're doing or talking about. A private club has the right to admit whoever they want and why is it that women want to hang around men all the time anyway? Sometimes we men want a place where we can just be ourselves and hang out. Now if augusta national was a government funded place that would be different but it's not so she should just go sitdown somewhere. Posted by: Donald Perkins Jr on January 26, 2004 10:42 AMPost a comment
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