What the Data Say
Civil Rights and Golf
By Wornie Reed
Various efforts to integrate sports began after World War II. First was Jackie Robinson in baseball and later Althea Gibson in Tennis.
The integration push in golf occurred on two fronts—professionally and recreationally. First, Joe Louis assisted Black professional golfers in integrating the Professional Golf Association, a task that took until the 1960s.
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, golf became popular among African Americans. For example, a 1951 study in Omaha, Nebraska, found that more Black union workers (20 percent) played the public course than their White counterparts (15 percent).
Thousands across the country petitioned local governments to build Black courses or permit Blacks to use White (public) courses.
In 1948 3,000 African Americans in Miami signed a petition calling for access to the city’s only public course. Similar petitions were submitted in Charlottesville, Virginia (1949), Shreveport, Louisiana (1950), Atlanta (1951), Jackson, Mississippi (1952), Columbus, Georgia (1954), and Macon, Georgia (1960). In a few instances, cities granted segregated access to facilities. However, in most instances, the petitions generated substantial conflict, leading to lawsuits by petitioners.
Blacks filed many lawsuits to integrate public parks and courses. This push was part of the civil rights movement—more so than is generally realized.
Between 1947 and 1963, Blacks filed 23 significant lawsuits against cities and states petitioning to play on local public courses. These lawsuits were widespread across all states in the Southeast plus Colorado, Ohio, and Massachusetts,
The lawsuit against Mobile in 1961 was led by John Sawyer, who had introduced me to the game of golf. Before he and his petitioners won that suit, Black players had to travel nearly three hours to New Orleans to play a public course open to Blacks. Occasionally they could travel one hour to Pensacola to play a course on the Naval base if some member of the group had military credentials.
The most impactful case might have been Holmes v. City of Atlanta in 1955, featuring the Holmes family. The Holmes in the suit name was Alfred “Tup” Holmes, son of Hamilton Holmes, Sr., a prominent physician, and avid golfer. Tup was a champion amateur golfer, winning many African American tournaments.
Fiery Hamilton Holmes, his sons “Tup” and Oliver, and their friend Charles Bell sued Atlanta on behalf of 300 golfers dubbed “the Atlanta Golf Committee” to play on the Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course.
The year after Brown v. Board, the federal district court ruled that Atlanta should let Blacks play or build a separate course for Blacks. The city granted the usual segregated situation: Blacks could play on two days and Whites on five days.
The Holmes family objected to the segregation response and appealed the decision over the objection of Thurgood Marshall, who argued that they should not use valuable resources to fight for integration for “a few doctors” and suggested that they push integration for all Blacks.
Nevertheless, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court with some assistance from Marshall’s NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The Court cited Brown and a Baltimore public park case in ruling that Atlanta must integrate the municipal course.
The furor over the case before and after the Supreme Court decision indicated that it was more important than Marshall thought. In the face of widespread threats and some actual violence, there was general support in the Black community, which stood firm. The situation was so potentially dangerous that the Holmes family and Bell played another course on opening day for integrated play on the Jones course.
Interestingly, in 1960 Tup’s son, Hamilton Holmes, Jr., was one of two students who sued and integrated the University of Georgia.
There is a public course named after Tup Holmes in Atlanta, a good course that I have played.
Among the many other lawsuits by Black golfers was that of the “Greensboro Six.” On December 7, 1955—the same week as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the same month as the Holmes Supreme Court ruling, and five years before the famous Greensboro Four Woolworth Sit-in—this group “played in.” After the clerk refused their fees, they placed their money on the counter and went out and played the “White” municipal course.
They were arrested for trespassing but eventually won their case in the NC Supreme Court. The decision in this 1957 case set an important legal precedent. It was the first time a federal court had stated that the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision had been overruled.
Thus, golf was part of the civil rights movement.
