Day 356 - The L.A. Country Club

I saw somewhere online yesterday that Jaleel White, the actor who played Steve Urkel on the sitcom Family Matters, just got married. Nothing so special about that… I mean, of course – congratulations and good luck to the newlyweds! But, what got my attention is that the wedding took place at the famous Los Angeles Country Club in Beverly Hills. For those that might not know who Jaleel White is – he is an African-American male, and his wife, she is white and a woman. And here is why all that matters.

The LA Country Club is one of the most exclusive country clubs in Los Angeles and possibly the country. The “sign up” fee to join the club (if you are allowed to join) is I believe around $300,000. The club was founded in 1897, and in 1911 was relocated to its present location, a small at the time city called Beverly Hills. The country club is enormous - over 300 acres of perfect greenery situated in the middle of some of the most expensive real estate in the world. The golf course is double the size of an average golf course and the property is valued at about $8 billion dollars.

So this special LA institution is well known to people who grew up in Los Angeles, especially if they are Jewish, African American, or women. From the start, the membership to L.A. Country Club was reserved only for white Christian males and this was very strictly enforced. Their white wives eventually were allowed in only as that - the wives of the members. The first two Jewish people – men of course - were allowed to join the club in 1977. Then, not until 1991 the club was finally integrated to allow its first African American member - Gene Washington, a former football star for Stanford and the San Francisco 49ers. 1977 and 1991! I came to the US in 1997 just for reference of how recent all this is.

So that is why seeing the news that Jaleel White married his tech executive woman wife there got my attention. Just food for thought.

P.S. And one more fun fact: Based on its value, L.A. Country Club should be paying about $80 million (1%) in annual property taxes (because its land is worth $8 billion-plus). But because of two specially designed laws enacted more than 45 years ago, LACC's land is currently assessed at just $22 million, and they only pay $220,000 in property taxes.