A Tearful Journey For Freedom

Maggie was born in a little sawmill town called Campti, Louisiana, on July 1, 1911. This little town did not keep birth records of African-Americans. Her family was some of the upper-class coloreds in Campti. Maggie loved attending the Central Colored school in Shreveport, Louisiana. She loved church and Sunday school. She became May Day Queen and a basketball star.

She played the piano in the high school band. After high school, she decided to check out her assets and think about what she could do positive for herself and the world.

One day at her girlfriend Glady’s house, she met two swinging fellows from Los Angeles, California. After hearing all of the wonderful things about Los Angeles, Maggie and Gladys decided to ride back to Los Angeles, California with Howard and Willie. She was on her way to Hollywood, a big city with huge lights, and an opportunity for Maggie to accomplish her goal. She dreamed of playing the piano in a smoke-filled nightclub on Central Avenue, also known as Black Broadway.

The car was full, so she rode every mile in the open rumble seat in the back! It did not rain until they hit Arizona. When she arrived in Los Angeles, she went to bed ill.

Maggie’s Golf Club was proclaimed the official women’s club in Los Angeles. She presented Supervisor Kenneth Hahn with a trophy for his aid in breaking down Jim Crow activities in L.A. The black group was installed when the white club refused African-American members.

With the help of Berry Gordy, Jim Brown, and Junius Griffin Maggie founded the Minority Associated Golfers (M.A.G.). Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five cut the first ribbon to the first golf course putting green for African-Americans.

As founder and president of the 2000 member Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP, Hathaway maintained a high profile. The nine-hole Jack Thompson Golf Course was transferred from the Thompson family to the Los Angeles County. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn said (after black members voted Maggie out of the black club "Vernondale" and the Caucasian club "Western Avenue" also voted her out), "I am a Christian and I will help you to integrate golf. I shall open all Caucasian clubs to all races, including jobs and leases," he did. He made Maggie a commissioner, and named a golf course after Maggie Hathaway.

He did it and asked Maggie to be steady and patient until things got better. Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite Burke dedicated the course in December 1999. Maggie also had help from Deputy’s Champ Davis LaCour and Supervisor Hahn’s son, City Attorney James Hahn. Five hundred people attended the ceremony honoring the first golf course in California named for an African-American female golfer. The new NAACP president, Gus Robinson, also honored her--along with Joe Finch and Actor, Athlete Jim Brown.

Famed writer James Achenbach wrote, "We give awards to pros and amateurs and even to politicians and personalities, but we rarely recognize those who work anonymously in golf’s trenches. Woman of the year Juli Inkster was incredible, winning two majors at 39, but my choice is Maggie Hathaway, godmother of Los Angeles Minority golf."

Maggie made enemies. Her life was threatened, her home, a Castle, burned down. Nevertheless, the crusade continued because she is a brave bullheaded Cherokee,

Chaktak, Creek, Afro, and Indian. Maggie attended the first PGA Championship Advisory Committee at the historical Riviera Country Club. She served on the Advisory Committee for the 1983 PGA Championship.

In 1973, while working for the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper, Maggie covered the Late Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs Golf Tournament.

In 1965, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn appointed Maggie Commissioner to the Status of Women, Probation and Alcoholism.

With the help of Sammy Davis Sr. family and others, on April 9, 1962, Maggie Hathaway signed the legal documents, and incorporation papers, for the Beverly Hills, Hollywood Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was approved. Sammy Davis Jr. produced the first NAACP awards show. Maggie presented the first NAACP Founders Awards to Sammy Davis Jr., Berry Gordy and celebrity actress and television host Dinah Shore. Then, Governor of California, Jerry Brown and Playboy Chairman Hugh Hefner attended the show.

After the National NAACP honored Maggie, executive director Benjamin Hooks said, "Without her dedication and insight, we would have no NAACP Image Awards."

The last leader she asked to help was Malcolm X. He was attending a conference with the Muslims. Malcolm promised to help. He wrote two letters; one the FBI took from her when they visited her home. They wanted to know if she was picketing the movie industry and the golf courses because she was a communist? "No," she said "I’m a Methodist."

She and Ondra, her daughter with Pee Wee Davis, met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at LAX Airport. He said, tell Jesse Jackson to "Picket!" Maggie told Jesse Jackson. The NAACP Branch opened thirty unions for black actors.

The responses received throughout the years certainly have been gratifying, rewarding, and fulfilling.

Maggie’s message is getting attention throughout the United States, and the NAACP is benefiting from her dedication and continuous efforts. They will bring about more little Tigers in the game of golf.

With this book, it is my intent as author to provide an intimate, intense look at how anyone, even a shy, introspective woman from a small segregated town, Campti, Louisiana, can excel in the midst of racism, segregation, business, rejection, and continuos defeat in life.

Maggie has done it all. Somebody had to stand up for minorities and for kids. Now, across the country, junior golf is germinating and spreading.

She, along with many others, is finally being recognized. Dear Maggie, we’re sorry it took so long.

Welcome! Join Maggie and me as we experience this very tearful, yet wonderful, courageous journey for freedom. Was it worth the tears? Come experience the journey--