The Georgia State Chess Championship tournament was held over the weekend. Those interested can find the particulars at: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202404212862.0.
In addition, there is an article at the USCF website concerning the ten people chosen for the new Georgia Chess Hall of Fame, which can be found here: https://new.uschess.org/news/dan-lucas-inducted-georgia-hall-fame.
One of the worthy choices was Mr. William Alexander Scott III,
who was an “African American from Atlanta who broke the color line in the Southern Chess Association in 1951 and the GCA in the 1960s; Atlanta Chess Association vice president (1963) and president (1965-1967); organizer, journalist, and instructor.”
Mr. Scott, which is how I always addressed the man, was my friend. I would visit him at his office at the Atlanta Daily World newspaper and we would play Chess. That would have been in the early 1970s when I first became interested in Chess. There was much racism ‘back in the day’ and yours truly had a choice to make, because my family was like everyone else. I recall a time when those with darker skin were marching and had shut down the interstate highway. My family was gathered around the TV watching the event when cousin Carl asked, “What do you think about what we’re seeing, Michael?”
The answer was immediate, “If my skin were dark I’d be out there with them.” There was complete silence. My choice had been made. The VietNam “conflict”, a completely unnecessary and wanton killing of innocent people, was raging and I was marching against the “conflict.” Everyone must make choices in life. Not all of my choices have been the right ones, but that choice is one of the ones for which I am most proud.
Some years ago a Chess player, Frank Johnson,
a strong player on the losing end of a vote for POTGCA (Fun Fong [https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/gca-president-renounces-chess/] was, unfortunately, the winning candidate) came to the Ironman Chess Club, saying, “I’ve been playing with some of the old guys (Joe Scott, George Leite, and Stan Sherman, etc.) and they all speak highly of you, Mike.”
Bob Joiner was my friend. After being taught how to play Chess by my father he beat me several times, which sent me to a bookstore, where the book, “How To Play Chess,” written by Fred Reinfeld, was purchased.
I refused my father’s offer to play again until after having read the entire book. I was fifteen or sixteen at the time. The next time we played I shocked my father by winning. He demanded another game, which he lost. Ronald became irate and swept the board clean of all the pieces. We never played again.
After hearing about it, cousin Carl Hendrix, who worked for Eastern Airlines, mentioned a fellow employee who played Chess. That man was Bob Joiner, who won the 1969 Georgia State Chess Championship 5-0. For many years I wondered what would have happened if I had met Bob four years earlier than when first playing in a USCF tournament. After learning I have Aphantasia (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2023/05/26/aphantasia/) the realization struck that it would not have mattered when I first began playing the Royal Game. I would go by Bob’s office near 5 Points in downtown Atlanta and we would walk to a sandwich shop and return to his office with the sammy’s, and play Chess. Because Bob was a Public Defender, one who once helped me out of a legal jam, I did pro bono investigations for him. Some years ago the USCF sold bricks that would be inscribed, and placed along with other bricks. Bob purchased one of the bricks and I made a point of looking at it during a visit to Crossville, Tennessee. Bill Hall was in charge then and as we stood there looking at the bricks I told him about the time Bob offered to purchase one of those bricks for me, to be placed beside his brick, because I had won the 1976 Atlanta Chess Championship 5-0, but I declined his offer. Obviously puzzled, Bob wanted to know why I refused. “Because the USCF HQ will not be here long enough for it to matter, Bob,” I stated.
That was written to give you an idea of what kind of man my friend Robert Joiner was.
Prior to the beginning of that 1969 Georgia State Chess Championship some (most?) of the players got together and decided to ask Mr. William A. Scott to “play in a separate room.
Bob Joiner, (https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/atlanta/name/john-joiner-obituary?id=6859499) to his everlasting credit, took a stand, refusing to go along with the others. Bob led the small group who felt Mr. Scott should be allowed to play in the same room as everyone else, and they were ready, willing, and able, to not play in the event unless Mr. Scott was allowed to play alongside them. The racists backed down, and Mr. Scott was allowed to play in the main room.
Bob Joiner was not one of the chosen ones to be installed in the new Georgia Chess HOF, which is one of the most egregious mistakes ever made by the people in charge of Chess in the Great State of Georgia. Bob not being chosen speaks volumes about those in charge of the GCA. Only one person on the GCA board reached out to this writer and former player to ask for my thoughts on who should be in the new GCA HOF, Wayne Schmuggerow. After checking, I see Smuggy, like so many others, abandoned the GCA ship. There is a reason. The website shows not one, but two vacancies on the GCA board of directors. It is no secret the GCA is in a sorry condition. All one needs to do if you disagree is surf on over to the pitifully moribund website (https://www.georgiachess.org/) to understand why I am disparaging the Chess organization of MY HOME STATE.
It was not easy going against the mores and prevailing ‘wisdom’ of the time. My friend Bob Joiner took a very important stand ‘back in the day’. For him to have been overlooked, or excluded, for whatever reason, is reprehensible. When it comes to Chess I am embarrassed and ashamed to say I am from Georgia.
Armchair Warrior 