Two years after a group of Black women golfers had the police called on them because they were apparently taking too long to move through the course at the Grandview Golf Club in Pennsylvania, two of the women have decided to file a lawsuit against the club, and other involved parties, for what they say was racial and gender discrimination.
“When this man saw us, he saw two things: He saw us being African-American, and he saw us being an all-women group being on the golf course,” Myneca Ojo, one of the women in question told the York Daily Record. “I don’t want anyone else to have that feeling that they are unwelcome any place in this country.”
Ojo and Karen Crosby, another member of the group, filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Harrisburgh against the Grandview Golf Club; Jordan Chronister, one of the co-owners of the course; Steve Chronister, the former York County president commissioner; and Jordan Chronister’s father, as well as Marc Bower and Brian Polachek.
The complaint alleges conspiracy to violate constitutional rights, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and multiple other claims.
“We’re ready to bring this to some sort of closure. It’s been going on for two years, and it has greatly impacted our lives in many ways,” Crosby said. “We’re just looking to move forward and go back to some sort of normalcy for our everyday lives.”
Ojo and Crosby aren’t the only ones from the group looking for justice.
Carolyn Dow and Sandra Harrison, who were part of the golf group, reportedly filed a similar lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday, while the last woman who participated, Sandra Thompson, who is a lawyer and the president of the York NAACP, has initiated a case in the York County Court of Common Pleas, but has yet to file a complaint.
Steve Chronister was the one who actually picked up the phone to call 911— not once, but twice—on the group of women.
His 911 call with police showed that he reported a “tough situation” with “a group of golfers that decides they don’t want to abide by the rules.”
When asked if the group had weapons, Chronister quipped no, “other than her mouth.”
“She ran for judge. She’s an attorney. She knows it all,” Chronister added about Thompson. “She totally thinks we’re being racist. We’re not being racist. We’re being golf course management that has to have play moving a certain way.”
Now Steve Chronister says he’s looking forward to the legal battle.
“What’s really crazy is we know the truth hasn’t be told,” he told the York Daily Record. “I look at it as a fraudulent accusation of racism and discrimination that never happened.”