WS Chronicle

The mural that commemorates the legacy of the Greensboro Six – Dr. George Simkins, Phillip Cooke, Leonidas Wolfe, Samuel Murray, Joseph Sturdivant and Elijah Herring – the six men who decided to play nine holes at the city-owned, whites-only Gillespie Golf Course on Dec. 7, 1955, was recently unveiled. The six men were charged with trespassing and spent 15 days in jail.

After a North Carolina judge ordered the course to integrate, the clubhouse burned, and the city abandoned involvement with the property.

But seven years later, on Dec. 7, 1962, the course reopened, and George Simkins hit the opening tee shot, officially integrating Gillespie Golf Course.

“It’s amazing,” Witherspoon said. reacting to the mural at the unveiling. “It’s honestly crazy; it’s breathtaking,” 

Witherspoon also said he was personally inspired by the story of the Greensboro Six as a Black golfer.

“Without the Greensboro Six, there’s no Tiger Woods, you know; without the Greensboro Six, there’s no Charlie Sifford,” Witherspoon said. “So honestly, we need to know more about them. More people need to know more about the Greensboro Six.”

Witherspoon is actually depicted in the mural. Brooklyn artist Vincent Ballentine, who was commissioned to paint the mural by Wyndham Rewards, explained that before starting the painting he went out to Gillespie and took hundreds of pictures of golfers playing the course. Ballentine said he did this because he wanted elements of the present and past in his mural.