Bad Lies

An African-American golfer and a washed-up St. Paul Saints’s pitcher, caught in a dangerous post-World War II mix of racial tension, anxious social change, and anti-Communist paranoia, struggle to find a common ground of trust as they mount a challenge to segregation in professional golf. It’s the late 1940s, and the Professional Golf Association’s “Caucasian only” rule is in force for almost every major tournament. Flash Dawkins knows he’s good enough to win as a pro golfer, but his attempt to qualify for the St. Paul Open makes him a marked man with a growing list of enemies ready to short-circuit his dreams of becoming golf’s Jackie Robinson.

Thomas B. Jones of Kansas City, MO Thomas B. Jones is a retired professor of history and author of The Missing Professor (2005), Deadly Professors (2010), and articles and books on U.S. history, golf, liberal education, student success, and college teaching. For more information, visit http://missingprofessor.blogspot.com.