D4: Resolution 20160211-013 — original pdf

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RESOLUTION NO. 20160211-013 WHEREAS, in 1924, the Austin Lions Club established the Austin Municipal Golf and Amusement Association (the "Association") with the intent to establish the first public golf course and clubhouse in Austin; and WHEREAS, the Association established the Lions Municipal Golf Course, known by its nickname "Muny," through a lease for a portion of the Brackenridge Tract on Enfield Road in West Austin owned by the University of Texas executed on May 31, 1924, between the Board of Regents and the Association; and WHEREAS, on December 17, 1936 the Association transferred their lease for the course to the City of Austin and in March 1937 this transfer was approved by the University of Texas Board of Regents; and WHEREAS, throughout its first 26 years, Muny was a segregated golf course despite its proximity to Clarksville, historically a predominantly African American community where laborers who helped build the course and many caddies who worked at the course resided; and WHEREAS, after the Sweatt v. Painter United States Supreme Court decision desegregated portions of The University of Texas in 1950, the African American community in Austin pressed for access to golf on municipal courses. Starting in late 1950 led by Mayor Taylor Glass and Council Member Emma Long, the Austin City Council desegregated the course in the spring of 1951, and Muny became the first desegregated municipal golf course in the South; and WHEREAS, the desegregation of Muny set a precedent in Austin that was followed by the integration of the Austin Public Library in 1951 and the desegregation of a fire station on Lydia Street in 1952, both well in advance of the United States Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education and decisions requiring desegregation of public golf courses; and WHEREAS, on December 16, 2008, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a resolution supporting the Travis County Historical Commission's application to the Texas Historic Commission for a historical marker at Muny on the basis of the early desegregation of the Lions Municipal Golf Course and the bonds of affection Muny enjoys in the community; and WHEREAS, on January 15, 2009, the City Council passed Resolution No. 20090115-060 supporting the Travis County Historical Commission's application to the Texas Historical Commission for a historical marker at the Lions Municipal Golf Course in recognition of the historic significance of the integration of the golf course and the advancement of civil rights by the desegregation of the golf course in 1951; and WHEREAS, on April 30, 2009, with the approval of H.R. No. 1397, the Texas House of Representatives of the ST' Texas Legislature commemorated the approval of the Texas Historical Marker at Lions Municipal Golf Course; and WHEREAS, the Muny was granted a Texas Historical Marker in 2009 and an official state historical marker was placed at the course in the Fall of 2009 to commemorate the desegregation of the course; and WHEREAS, citizens of Austin organized in a group known as Save Muny have filed a nomination to have Muny entered into the National Register of Historic Places based not only on the local and regional significance of the course but on the course's national significance as the first municipal golf course in the South to desegregate; and