Little Rock Golf Club

Front: This was the site of a Black-owned segregation-era golf course for local African Americans. It was opened in 1953 by Richard Smalls, Sr., who caddied at whites-only courses in the Charleston area. Community members helped Smalls build six par-3 and par-4 holes and a two-story clubhouse. Players socialized at the first-floor clubhouse and bar, while the second floor offered overnight rooms to those from out of town. Reverse: Smalls named the course “Little Rock Golf Club,” supposedly after the many pebbles he found when preparing the land. In 1958, golfers at Little Rock’s clubhouse began planning an effort to desegregate the Charleston Municipal Golf Course. They sued the City, and the course admitted African Americans in 1961 under court order. Business at Little Rock declined, but the course stayed open until Smalls’s death in 1973.