In the summer of 1955, six African American golfers in Beaumont, 
Texas, began attacking the Jim Crow caste system when they filed 
a federal lawsuit for the right to play the municipal golf course. The 
golfers and their African American lawyers went to federal court and 
asked a conservative white Republican judge to render a decision 
that would not only integrate the local golf course but also set 
precedent for desegregation of other public facilities.

    In Fair Ways, Robert J. Robertson chronicles three parallel stories 
that converged in this important case. He tells the story of the 
plaintiffs—avid golfers who had learned the game while working as 
caddies and waiters—of their young lawyers, recent graduates from 
Howard University law school, and of the Republican judge just 
appointed to the bench by President Eisenhower.

    Using public case papers, public records, newspapers, and oral 
histories, Robertson has recreated the scene in Beaumont on the 
eve of desegregation. Fair Ways gives a vivid picture of racial 
segregation and the forces that brought about its end.

_________________________________________________________

ROBERT J. ROBERTSON is a Beaumont businessman, writer, 
teacher, and leader in local history affairs. His earlier book, Her 
Majesty's Texans: Two English Immigrants in Reconstruction Texas, 
is also published by Texas A&M University Press.


Number 103: Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, 
Texas A&M University


What people are saying about this book

"The book is carefully researched, extensively footnoted, and clearly 
written. It provides a fresh look at race and the struggle for civil rights 
in a medium sized Texas city."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 
October 2006

". . . a wonderful story, rich with detail and local color and personality, 
that sheds an illuminating ray of light on one aspect of the story of 
desegregation, showing how the most unlikely persons can have a 
major impact on the important events of our lives. This is a book that 
local historians, historians of black experience, and those interested 
in the history of sport will all find indispensable."—John B. Boles, 
William P. Hobby Professor of History, Rice University