Remembering When Trump Forced Palm Beach to Accept Blacks and Jews

Remembering When Trump Forced Palm Beach to Accept Blacks and Jews

• by Steven H Ahle

Of all the silly attacks on Donald trump is the accusations that he is a racist, whereas the democrats love minorities.  Almost everyone is aware that Donald Trump opened a resort in Palm Beach by the name of  Mar-a-Lago.  But what most people don’t remember is that the liberals in Palm Beach wouldn’t allow Blacks and Jews to join the golf clubs there.  Palm Beach fought against allowing Trump to open his golf club that welcomed both Blacks and Jews.
Donald Trump sent the city council a copy of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, a movie that starred Sidney Portier who was in love with a white woman and rejected their daughter’s fiance because he was black.  He then sued the city for 100 million dollars in order to get his course approved.  He finally won and the other golf courses in Miami were forced to desegregate.

As you will notice Palm Beach County is heavily democratic:

ORANGE	206,174	303,458	15,996	195,990	721,618
OSCEOLA	44,594	75,657	3,753	53,177	177,181
PALM BEACH	245,452	367,236	30,338	216,973	859,999
PASCO	125,305	104,324	14,943	77,546	322,118
PINELLAS	223,077	221,968	23,065	150,484	618,594

At the time there was an article written for the WSJ that included input from Abe Foxman, the longtime head of the Anti-Defamation League:

Mr. Trump also has resorted to the courts to secure his foothold here, and many residents wince at the attention his legal battles with the town have drawn — to the town in general, and to the admission practices at some of Palm Beach’s older clubs in particular.
…The culture clash began to approach a climax last fall, when Mr. Trump’s lawyer sent members of the town council a copy of the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” a film that deals with upper-class racism. Mr. Trump then approached the town council about lifting the restrictions that had been placed on the club. He also asked some council members not to vote on the request because their membership in other clubs created a conflict of interest.
Last December, after the council refused to lift the restrictions, Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Palm Beach, alleging that the town was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in part because it is open to Jews and African-Americans. The suit seeks $100 million in damages.
… Mr. Foxman seems pleased that Mr. Trump has elevated the issue of discriminatory policies at social clubs. “He put the light on Palm Beach,” Mr. Foxman says. “Not on the beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination. It has an impact.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Foxman says, the league has received calls from Jewish residents telling of how Palm Beach clubs are changing. Locals concur that in the past year, organizations such as the Bath and Tennis Club have begun to admit Jewish patrons. The Palm Beach Civic Association, which for many years was believed to engage in discriminatory behavior, this month named a Jewish resident as its chief officer.

Not bad for an anti semetic racist, huh?