Alfred Holmes was born in Atlanta in 1917 and learned golf in a city where Black players could caddie and compete in segregated events but could not use Atlanta’s white municipal courses. Atlanta History Center records that he caddied at Candler Park, attended Booker T. Washington High School and played collegiate golf at Tuskegee. He became a leading amateur, winning multiple collegiate and Black amateur titles. The PGA’s Caucasian-only membership clause, not removed until 1961, narrowed the professional path available to Black golfers of his generation.
His father, Dr. Hamilton M. Holmes, and brother, the Reverend Oliver Wendell Holmes, joined him as plaintiffs. His son, Hamilton E. Holmes, later helped desegregate the University of Georgia. These connected histories should not obscure Alfred Holmes’s own golf case.
On July 19, 1951, Alfred Holmes, Dr. Hamilton M. Holmes, Oliver Holmes and Charles Bell went to Bobby Jones Golf Course and requested access. They were refused because they were Black. The resulting federal case challenged exclusion not only from Bobby Jones but from Atlanta’s municipal golf system.
The legal path was not a single 1955 event. In 1954, a federal district court accepted a plan that would have allowed racially separate use at different times. The Fifth Circuit affirmed that judgment in June 1955. On November 7, 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed in a short decision grounded in its recent public-recreation desegregation rulings. Atlanta then opened its courses on a nondiscriminatory basis.
In December 1955, Black golfers played North Fulton Golf Course after the ruling. Sources vary on the exact date and participant list, so “in December 1955” is the responsible formulation until archival review resolves the difference. Three places must remain distinct: Bobby Jones was the site of the 1951 refusal; North Fulton hosted the documented post-ruling round; the present Alfred “Tup” Holmes Golf Course is a later memorial namesake.
The case matters beyond golf because access to municipal recreation affected who could practice, compete and fully use a city funded by all residents.
Alfred “Tup” Holmes Memorial Golf Course is a City of Atlanta public course at 2300 Wilson Drive SW, accessed from Delowe Drive. As reviewed September 12, 2026, the city describes an 18-hole course with three tee sets and low rolling terrain. It is not Black-owned; its significance comes from the person it memorializes, its place in southwest Atlanta and its continuing public function.
The Holmes Legacy Foundation says an exhibit about Alfred and Hamilton Holmes is displayed at the course. Travelers should confirm access rather than treating that claim as a guaranteed museum-style opening. Planned golf and STEM programs should not be presented as operating until confirmed.