PGA.com and The PGA of America honor African-American golf pioneers

Editor's Note: To commemorate Black History Month 2015, PGA.com and The PGA of America have put together this special section spotlighting some of golf's African-American heroes, focusing on those with a close connection to The PGA. Please check back frequently as we will add to this section throughout Black History Month.

PROFILE: ALTHEA GIBSON, BREAKING BARRIERS ON THE COURT AND COURSE
Althea Gibson was a natural athlete who attempted many sports without any instruction and yet excelled. Born the daughter of a South Carolina sharecropper -- and a generation behind legendary Babe Zaharias -- Gibson became one of the most gifted African-American woman athletes in history.

PROFILE: DEWEY BROWN

Dewey Brown was the first known African-American member of the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA). Brown was born in 1898, in North Carolina, and later moved to New Jersey as a young boy. By the age of eight he was a caddy at the Madison Golf Course. His love and passion for golf would only grow from there. On September 1st, 1928, he became a member of the PGA while working at the Shawnee Country Club. He was also a renowned golf club maker and golf teacher during the 1920s and 1930s, and crafted golf clubs for a number of the nation’s leading professionals and statesmen. Some of the notable people he made clubs for were: President Warren G. Harding, Vice President Charles Davis, and Charles "Chick" Evans. From 1947, until he passed, Brown owned and operated the Cedar River House and Golf Club at Indian Lake, New York.

In 1934, the PGA terminated Brown's membership when they allegedly discovered that he was African American. It wasn't until the 1960's, 30 years after being dropped without explanation, Brown was "re-elected to a class 'A' membership" in the PGA. (Forbidden Fairways, 1998)

PROFILE: JIM DENT, FROM CADDIE TO CHAMPION
Jim Dent’s passion for the game has taken him from a boyhood in Augusta’s caddie yards to the pinnacle of a great peak, made up of players who helped pave the way for others. If Dent’s life today seems very good, it’s because he earned it in the most extraordinary way.

PROFILE: JOE LOUIS, FIGHTER FOR DIVERSITY IN GOLF
Joe Louis Barrow, one of the greatest boxing champions in history, may have retired from the ring in 1951, but he kept fighting – for diversity in golf, a game which he had fallen in love with decades earlier.

PROFILE: JOHN SHIPPEN JR., THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN GOLF PROFESSIONAL
John Shippen Jr. was introduced to golf as a teenager at Shinnecock Hills, and became the first African-American to play in the U.S. Open in 1896. During a career that stretched until 1964, he built clubs, worked on maintenance crews, gave lessons and served as a head golf professional.