Gee, I Wonder Why

The "Local and Personal" column of the Hobart News of November 24, 1927, carried a tantalizing item. The Shults* family, it said, had moved to a farm south of Merrillville after selling their land along the Lincoln Highway west of Deep River to an unnamed person from Chicago. The News said, "It was stated at the time [of the sale] that the farm was to be used as a golf grounds for a negro golf club of Chicago, although the deal was made by a white man. It was said the deal with the golf club fell through."

I wonder whether the fact that the deal "fell through" had anything to do with the strong Klan presence in the area in the 1920s. As we've seen, you could get a crossed burned on your lawn in Ainsworth just for being Catholic. The Klan in Hobart held open festivities such as the Labor Day picnic and parade, and the 1927 papers carried routine announcements of parties at "Klan hall."

I don't think I need to provide a cite for the proposition that black people would have been barred from joining local country clubs or playing on local golf courses in the 1920s, hence the need to form a "negro golf club." But I expect the Klan would have viewed even a segregated golf club as an invasion.

We'll never know for sure why the deal fell through. It's a pity it did — a black golfers' club would have been an interesting addition to local history.

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I haven't been able to figure out which Shults household this was. There were several in the area between 1920 and 1930.