Topline
Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) has been in the hot seat for the past couple of days after a Rhode Island publication highlighted his continued membership at an exclusive private beach club which it reported is made up of only white members.
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 17: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (L) (D-NY) and Sen. Sheldon ... [+]
Key Facts
Local news outlet GoLocal Providence posted a video on Saturday of one of its reporters confronting the senator about his membership with the Bailey’s Beach Club in tony Newport.
Asked whether the club has admitted any members of color since 2017, when he was last questioned about its lack of diversity, Whitehouse said “the people who are running the place are still working on that” and he’s “sorry it hasn’t happened yet.”
Then pressed on whether “elite, all-white, wealthy clubs” should still exist today, Whitehouse said they are a “long tradition in Rhode Island” and noted there are “many” of them, comments that landed him among Twitter’s top-trending topics on Monday.
While Whitehouse’s office later released a statement insisting the club has no “restrictive policies” about race and has “members of color,” the privacy of the club, which operates as a non-profit and is officially titled the Spouting Rock Beach Association, makes this difficult to prove.”under
The Newport club has long been frequented by elites—including the Vanderbilt and Astor families, which were both members—and by most recent estimates has around 500 members, only adding new ones “when old ones die,” according to the Providence Journal.
The more than 100-year-old club has not commented on its membership policies (it did not respond to questions from Forbes and declined to comment to other news outlets) but saw its lack of diversity highlighted in a 2003 profile by The New York Times, with that piece and another report from GoLocal Providence noting some people of color using the club—but not directly as members.
Crucial Quote
In the 2003 profile, a long-time member told The New York Times of the club’s demographic composition: “Jewish, yes … Blacks, not really.”
Surprising Fact
It is not against the law for private clubs like Bailey’s Beach to discriminate based on race. Though the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and national origin, clubs explicitly not open to the public are exempt from the law.
Chief Critic
“The club has no such restrictive policy,” said Whitehouse senior spokeswoman Meaghan McCabe in a statement to The New York Post. “The club has had and has members of color … The senator has dedicated his entire career to promoting equity and protecting civil rights, as his record shows.”
Key Background
Whitehouse, who has been outspoken about issues of racial justice during his tenure in public office, has been a member of the club for at least two decades. GoLocal Providence reported that Whitehouse vowed to quit the beach club during his 2006 Senate campaign but instead transferred his shares to his wife Sandra Thornton Whitehouse, making her one of the club’s top shareholders. However, a spokesperson for the senator told Forbes he “did not say that” and said the share transfer was to “accommodate a club policy of spouses not both being members.” When interviewed about his continued membership at the club in 2017, Whitehouse said “it would be nice” if the club “changed a little bit” and vowed to take up the issue of diversity “privately.”
Update: This article has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson for Sen. Whitehouse.
Further Reading
“SUMMER PLACES; At Bailey’s Beach, The Ruling Class Keeps Its Guard Up” (The New York Times)
