San Francisco Chronicle: “One year, San Francisco novelist Herb Gold said he was offered an associate membership if he would help write the Grove play. Gold took fellow writer Earnest Gaines (‘A Lesson Before Dying’), an African American, to a Wednesday night entertainment at the six-story downtown club. Five members, he said, were in blackface. One member clapped Gaines on the back. ‘Looks like you’ve played a little football,’ Gold heard him say. Shortly thereafter, the writers took their leave. ‘I guess I’m not clubbable,’ Gold said wryly.”