[2][3] It was the second racially desegregated golf course in the District of Columbia, and in 1991 its first nine holes were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

[3][12][13][14][15] According to a report in the Washington Post, every great African American professional golfer in the United States has played at the course since its opening, with the exception of Tiger Woods.

[6] Over the next several years, African American golfers in the city and surrounding areas held rallies, attended hearings, wrote letters, and lobbied Congress and executive branch officials to build the new course in Anacostia Park.

[30] Loeffler, who rose from extreme poverty to own a popular local restaurant and then became a noted concessionaire for the National Park Service,[31] administered Langston and the other city golf courses for the next four decades.

Golfers complained about the course so vehemently that U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands began an investigation and asked the Park Service to delay renewing the firm's contract.

[40] In 1957, the course suffered a setback when its one-story, concrete storage building burned to the ground, destroying $3,000 ($23,275 in 2010 inflated-adjusted dollars) worth of maintenance equipment.

The National Park Service claimed that only 21,500 golfers used the course in 1980 (down from about 30,000 in 1979), and that the Elder firm had not made the improvements required by its contract.

[59] The D.C. court overseeing the company's financial problems said kitchen, maintenance, and sports equipment would be auctioned off to help pay the debts.

[61] With Langston Golf Course closed for the third time in 10 years, District of Columbia highway officials argued the land should be used for a new bridge across the Anacostia River.

[63] But widespread protests from wealthy Capitol Hill residents, numerous lawsuits, and design changes caused the freeway's cost to balloon to $160 million, and it remained unbuilt by 1992.

In December 1994, the City Council bowed to neighborhood opposition and voted overwhelmingly to cancel the Barney Circle Freeway.

[12][15] The greens were in very bad condition, and poor neighborhood children would sneak onto the course and steal balls in play so that they could sell them back to golfers.

[61] The rough was groomed, greens resodded, security patrols increased to reduce daylight and after-hours crime, and a community outreach program implemented.

In 1987, the District of Columbia began looking for a way to upgrade or replace RFK Stadium so that the Washington Redskins would continue to play their games inside the city limits.

In the summer of 1986, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke agreed to dismantle Langston Golf Course and use the site for parking for a new stadium.

[67][68][69] But after protests from golfers and local residents (who did not want large amounts of traffic flowing through their neighborhood), Barry ruled out using Langston in the summer of 1987.

As the District still struggled to craft a deal to build a new stadium, the new Secretary of the Interior, Manuel Lujan, Jr., forced the city's new mayor, Sharon Pratt Dixon, to agree to preserve Langston Golf Course (although Lujan did agree to allow a redesign of the facility to accommodate some stadium parking).

[74] In January 1992, Mayor Dixon announced that golfers Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and businesswoman Rose Elder would design a new Langston Golf Course if the existing grounds were used for football stadium parking.

[77] Secretary Lujan said he would sign the 15-year contract, but that it would include a clause terminating the agreement if a stadium deal was reached by April 3, 1992.

[82] Congressional opposition rose significantly after the stadium's chief proponent, D.C. City Council Chairman John A. Wilson, committed suicide on May 19, 1993.

[83] By December, Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke abandoned the D.C. site and pledged to build his stadium in Maryland.

In 1988, the Nation's Capital Bicentennial Celebration committee said it would spearhead a $15 million fund-raising project to build a family golf center at Langston.

[4][86] A year later, the concessionaire agreed to begin a series of projects to bring Langston Golf Course up to Professional Golfers Association standards.

[87] In 2002, a print of a painting by noted local artist Linwood Barnes depicting Clyde Martin taking the first drive at Langston Golf Course was hung in the clubhouse.

)[15] The National Park Service and the concessionaire also established a strategic plan to raise $12 million to $17 million in public and private funds to complete the upgrade to PGA tour standards, build a new clubhouse with banquet facilities, establish a museum dedicated to African American golfers, replace the driving range, and expand the education center.

Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced the "Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act" in Congress, legislation which would allow the National Park Service (NPS) to lease Langston and the other federally owned golf courses in the District of Columbia (rather than simply offer a concession contract).

[90] A long-term lease, Norton said, would allow the lessee to obtain high levels of capital investment funds and greatly improve the courses.

[91] One of Langston's most difficult challenges is dealing with the giant Canada geese (Branta canadensis maxima) which inhabit the tidal marshes of Kingman Lake and the Anacostia River.

[92] The birds not only feed voraciously on the course's grasses, but their feces harm the greens and pose a health hazard to golfers.

[92][93] In 2007, federal park officials began considering a program to cull the geese population around Langston Golf Course in an attempt to save the river, an effort opposed by some animal rights groups.