Several readers contacted me after Sunday’s stories on accusations of sex-discrimination at Tucson Country Club to tell me about the history of discrimination against Jews at the club.
I didn’t get to check our archives till today, because I was off yesterday, but what I found was fascinating. Apparently, Tucson Country Club had an informal policy of not accepting Jews as member from its founding in 1947. In 1971, the club was called out publicly by Jack Sarver, the local banker and hotel owner who was then president of the Tucson Jewish Community Council. (He was also the father of Robert Sarver, current owner of the Phoenix Suns and namesake of UMC’s Sarver Heart Center .)
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On July 28, 1971, Jack Sarver wrote this letter to community leaders:
Dear Sirs:
In recent years certain broadly based organizations in Tucson have chosen to conduct public, social or fund raising activities at the Tucson Country Club.
In each instance the choice of the Tucson Country Club has caused protest and resentment in the Jewish community. In the interest of avoiding such problems in the future, we are writing to all such organizations in Tucson to advise them of the attitude of the Tucson Jewish Community Council and the organized Jewish community concerning the Tucson Country Club.
After careful study and inquiry, the Tucson Jewish Community Council has concluded that the Tucson Country Club follows membership admission policies which discriminate on the basis of religion. We consider such policies to be immoral and detrimental to the social and business climate of the entire community. The continuation of such prejudice harms the entire community.
We want all such organizations in Tucson to be aware that the Jewish Community of Tucson is extremely offended by the discriminatory membership policies of Tucson Country Club. In planning your public, social and fund raising activities we hope that you will consider the Jewish community’s strong feelings on this subject.
The Star published a story on the letter, referring to “the long-submerged tension between the Tucson Jewish community and the Tucson Country Club.” In the story, then-president Matthew J. Lang denied the club discriminates, then did himself proud with this quote: “Many of the members have a lot of friends who are Jewish.”
On Aug. 3, 1971, the Star editorialized strongly on the subject: “If the Tucson Country Club wishes to remain anti-Semitic, which apparently some of its members want it to do, then let it exclude Jews in its constitution and bylaws and let the chips fall where they may.”
The editorial went on to say something that echoed today’s discrimination accusation: “The club problem is new only to the extent that it now is public. There are those in its membership who have strongly — nay, bitterly — protested what seem like ‘old guard’ restrictive policies of membership.”
After months of discussion and agitation, the issue was formally resolved in May 1972. Sarver and the Tucson Jewish Community Council received a letter from Lang committing the club to deciding membership “on merit alone and not on an applicant’s ethnic or religious background.”
“I’m satisfied,” Sarver said. “I hope members of the Jewish faith will apply.”
