Martin luther king pins4/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Some get it on the first lesson or two,” said Echols, who retired from playing to direct tournaments. Gloria Simmons, president of the University Bridge Club, the first club in Atlanta, who now mostly works as a game director, set up eight tables and placed three decks, or boards, on each of them.Ĭredit: Natrice Miller / Natrice Miller / people say that you never really master bridge, but it depends on the individual. Still, on a chilly Tuesday in January, the bridge room at the Quality Living Services Senior Center was buzzing. ”Hopefully, it will get better as it gets warmer, but I don’t think we will ever get back to pre-pandemic numbers.” No trash-talking allowed “People have passed away and it is just hard for some people to get out,” said Willetta Phipps, 76, president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Bridge Unit, which makes up the area’s seven clubs. That has some of the veteran players concerned that the game might one day fade away. Those numbers are down from the group’s peak of about 5,000 because of the pandemic, attrition and the challenge of getting younger people interested in the game. Headquartered in Atlanta, the ABA has more than 2,000 members nationwide and about 240 people in Atlanta spread out over seven clubs. “This was our sport, and once you get hooked you just go with the flow until you can’t do it anymore.” “We would plan our vacations around tournaments,” said 89-year-old Benny Patton, who started playing as a Jackson State University student. But the ABA still chugged along in its own orbit, hosting two national championships a year and attracting players from all over the world. ![]() It wasn’t until 1967 that the American Contract Bridge League opened its membership to Black players. The following year, the ABA held its first national tournament in Buckroe Beach, Virginia. “They would play tennis in the day and play bridge at night,” said ABA national secretary Gloria Christler. The roots of the American Bridge Association date back to at least 1916, with the creation of the American Tennis Association (ATA), formed after the United States Tennis Association banned Black players from their tournaments.Ĭredit: Natrice Miller / Natrice Miller / the 1932 ATA championships at Hampton Institute, several of the players, who were also bridge enthusiasts, suggested playing evening games as a form of relaxation. Not only could Blacks and whites not share water fountains and bathrooms, but many Southern states prohibited the playing of cards across the races. It is easy to forget how restrictive Jim Crow laws were and how they forced Black people to navigate the American system. “We were skeptical because we thought this was a ritzy game for rich, white ladies,” said Andrew Echols, who has been playing since 1964. So they created their own communities and built their own organizations, including the American Bridge Association (ABA), devoted to the ancient and courtly game usually associated with white country club housewives. Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice Miller / it is also a place of refuge and a reminder of a time when Blacks and whites couldn’t play cards together. ![]()
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