New AG Slatery’s club membership met with shrug
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Twenty-five years ago, the exclusionary reputation of a Knoxville country club led to a furor when the University of Tennessee feared that its first African-American basketball coach would be rejected based on race. Today, a membership in that club by the state’s new attorney general has been met with barely a shrug.
Herbert Slatery on his application to become the state’s top attorney listed his membership in Cherokee Country Club, but responded “not applicable” to a question about whether he ever belonged to a club which limited membership based on race or gender.
The Cherokee Country Club in 2002 admitted its first black member in its 95-year history.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam left the club before running for Knoxville mayor in 2003.
Slatery is scheduled to be sworn in Wednesday.
