MARTIN SHEEN - CADDY STRIKE COST TEENAGE SHEEN HIS FIRST JOB

CADDY STRIKE COST TEENAGE SHEEN HIS FIRST JOB

MARTIN SHEEN kicked off his career as an activist by staging a caddy strike at his local country club when he was just 14. The West Wing star lost his first job at the all-white country club in Dayton, Ohio after proving to be a troublemaker. He recalls, "Today it would be considered child labour or child abuse, toting bags for these people - and this club was racist. "They were anti-Semitic and they thought of themselves as upholding the pillars of the community. They were doctors and lawyers but we were servants. They used words that I found embarrassing and obscene. "To this day I won't use the 'F' word because they used it and I didn't want to be like them. To this day, I can't belong to a private club because the first black man I saw hit a golf club was Joe Louis and he wasn't allowed to play at private clubs. "All of this led to me starting a caddy union. When I was 14 years old they went out on strike and it lasted 48 hours so they fired me."