Remember Their Sacrifice by Arif Khatib & Pete Elman

Author:Arif Khatib & Pete Elman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2022-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

11

Sistas on the Links of Love

Janet Johnson

In 2007, Janet Johnson had a revelation and then an idea, one that was borne of tragedy but has become one of nurturing, love, and hope. In an interview with the authors, she spoke at length about her organization, Sistas on the Links, and the motivation behind it.

“After my only son passed away in 2007 from lupus, I was devastated, walking around in a fog, and one of my colleagues noticed I was unfocused,” Johnson said. “A fellow golfer and coworker who had also lost a child told me at the time that the only thing that was able to give him back his focus was golf. I decided to join a club, looking for a place to play and to heal, and play with other women. When I went out on the course, I immediately felt the sun, the fresh air, the joy. I was playing at Blue Rock Springs Club in Vallejo [California], and I saw a flyer in the ladies’ room looking for women golfers. After playing two rounds with some members, they said I could join the club.

“Well, normally when you play a round, you’re with the same three golfers for three or four hours, so naturally you converse, and you often talk about family. But it never came up during these rounds,” Johnson said. “I felt isolated. The other golfers were virtually always white women, and there was not much in common. I realized that I wasn’t having fun.

“And when I wanted to have some of my friends join this club, I was told that they were capping the membership at seventy-five members—and I was the seventy-fifth! I didn’t feel wanted, and I felt like a token. I knew that what I needed was to be nurtured and healed by being in the company of Black women. And other Black women who played this game needed the sisterhood.

Janet Johnson. Golfer, innovator, and sister.

Courtesy of Janet Johnson

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