Posted: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:54 AM - 9,963 Readers

By: Kevin Robbins

And you’re the first to see it, freshly delivered from the foundry that made it in San Antonio:



The language in the marker about desegregation at Lions Municipal Golf Course differs slightly from the text written originally by the Texas State Historical Commission. A senior official with the University of Texas System, which owns the land Lions is on, argued that a private, invitational outing in 1963 at Lions that possibly excluded African Americans should be noted on the marker.

As you can see, it is.

The story about that controversy ran Sunday in the Austin American-Statesman. You can also find it here.

The marker, meanwhile, has no home. The system hasn’t decided where the marker will go. As the owner of the land, the system has final authority on whether the state-owned, privately sponsored marker is planted on the first tee of the golf course, as its sponsor group Save Muny desires, or in the right of way along Enfield, Exposition or Lake Austin Boulevard. It’s now in a back room at Lions, hidden from view.

The symbolism would be delicious — if it weren’t so achingly sad.