Playing at North Fulton, December 24, 1955
December 24, 1955 was an important day for the African American community, marking the desegregation of Atlanta’s public golf courses. In the days leading up to the historic round of golf, the Holmes family received phone calls from white segregationists threatening to stop attempts to play at the Bobby Jones Golf Course – in addition to information from Mayor Hartsfield himself about possible trouble at the course. To avoid the risk, Tup and Oliver Holmes and Charles Bell instead went to the North Fulton course and played without incident.They were joined on the course by their lawyer, R.E. Thomas, Jr., who kept score for the group. T.D. Hawkins and F.J. Patterson, a bank teller and real estate salesman respectively, followed behind. Another African American foursome played at North Fulton in the afternoon, and another two golfers played at Bobby Jones later the same day. Tup Holmes shot a 1-over-par 36 on the front side finishing with a respectable 18-hole score of 79 and recalled “the only thing that was said to us was, ‘Fellows, we are glad you are here.'” Thus, after the city cleaned up graffiti at Bobby Jones African American golfers played there and North Fulton without any further distraction on both December 24 and 25, 1955.