Charlie Takes His Shot
How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
2018 Eureka! Nonfiction Children's Book Honor Award, presented by the California Reading Association
When the rules kept Charlie Sifford from playing in the Professional Golf Association, he set out to change them.
Charlie Sifford loved golf, but in the 1930's only white people were allowed to play in the Professional Golf Association. Sifford had won plenty of Black tournaments, but he was determined to break the color barrier in the PGA. In 1960 he did, only to face discrimination from hotels that wouldn't rent him rooms and clubs that wouldn't let him use the same locker as the white players. But Sifford kept playing, becoming the first Black golfer to win a PGA tournament and eventually ranking among the greats in golf.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a quietly affecting story about barrier-breaking golfer Charlie Sifford, Churnin describes the African-American athlete's lifelong devotion to the game despite systemic racism. As a youth, Sifford became a caddie in order to get on the green in 1930s North Carolina; he later won the Negro National Open multiple times. Sifford's hopes of playing professionally were ignited when Jackie Robinson wrote a newspaper column in support of Sifford, but even a court win against the Professional Golfer Association didn't mean an end to mistreatment and abuse. Joven's soft, smudgy cartoons soften the harder moments of Sifford's story, and Churnin concludes on a hopeful note: "And now it was possible for everyone who loved the game to play and hear cheers from the crowd." Ages 4 8. Author's)
