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WHO IS BILL POWELL?

On the first day of February, we want to take you beyond the stars of Black History Month–Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frederick Douglas–to tell you about an extraordinary individual from Canton, Ohio who never set out to change history – but ended up doing just that.

Born 100 years ago, Bill Powell faced a lot of prejudice in America and saw a lot of signs reading “Whites Only”. But when his country needed him during World War II, he enlisted to serve.

His passion in life was the game of golf. He even started a golf team at school, for which he was the coach. When he returned to Ohio after serving overseas, where he played the game during leisure hours, he was not permitted to play on America’s segregated golf courses. He wanted to become a professional golfer, but the PGA had a “caucasian clause”.

So with quiet determination, and a dream to break barriers, Powell decided to build his own golf course.Buying 78 acres of farmland in East Canton, Ohio in 1946, he began clearing the land, and seeding the first nine holes by hand, walking back and forth over the land, on fairways and greens he’d designed in his head. Two years later, Clearview Golf Course opened as the only golf course in America to be owned and operated by an African-American.

All races were welcome to play there, of course, because he despised segregation. The public course, which expanded to 18 holes 30 years later, eventually became a designated National Historic Site.

Helping to break the racial barrier in golf, Powell was given a PGA Life Membership and the 2009 PGA of America Distinguished Service Award