Golf evolved largely as a country club sport in the United States, and African Americans were barred from most memberships. Yet integrating golf has been an ongoing battle.
Early Pioneers and the United Golfers Association
Despite considerable barriers presented by racial segregation and inequality a small group of middle class African Americans played the sport in the 1920s. The United Golf Association (UGA) was founded in the mid-1920s to provide African American golfers with an opportunity to compete on an organized tour. At the time they were barred from the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) tour.
The United Golfers Association (UGA), formed in 1926, helped to promote and provide opportunities for African American golfers through the 1960s. The highlight of the tour was the Negro National Open, which helped spur the growth of African American golf clubs around the country. This event became one of the major African American social events during segregation. The UGA also sponsored events for women.
Ann Gregory was among its most celebrated players winning the UGA championship four times and becoming the first black woman to participate in the United States Golf Association championship in 1956.
Just as municipal courses were being opened to blacks in the North, a small number of private courses were built by African American elites. While financial limitations meant the 9-hole course was not always well-maintained, Lincoln was home to several famous African Americans including the sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois who appeared on the 1934 membership roster. The course was located next to the Lincoln Cemetery, where many notable African Americans are buried, including Tup Holmes and his father, Hamilton M.
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Overcoming Segregation and Discrimination
In 1961, the PGA removed its Caucasian-only clause, which had existed in its bylaws since 1943. This change opened up PGA tournaments to African American golfers allowing extremely talented black professional players like Charles Sifford and Lee Elder to compete at the highest level.
After Tup Holms was denied access to the Bobby Jones course, he brought a legal suit that eventually reached the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall argued the case, and the Court’s decision in 1955 desegregated the public golf courses in Atlanta. The ruling eventually led to the desegregation of all public places in the city.
Through the 1980s most African Americans involved at the highest levels of the sport were caddies who earned a living working for elite professional athletes and country clubs.
Key Figures and Their Impact
However, a few notable African American golfers, including John Shippen, Althea Gibson, Lee Elder, and Charlie Sifford, found success in golf and demonstrated their mastery of the sport before Tiger Woods’s emergence.
1896: John Shippen becomes the first African American to play in the U.S. Open.
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The work of these pioneers paved the way for the emergence of Tiger Woods in the 1990s. Woods (b. 1975) has the second most major golf tournament victories in history. He has spent more time atop the sport’s rankings than any other competitor, and his dominance in the sport sparked a dramatic increase in golf’s appeal in the United States.
During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1997, Tiger Woods characterized himself as “Cablinasian”-a combination of Caucasian, black, Indian, and Asian. Since then, Tiger has been a symbol of changing ideas about race and the growing recognition of multiracial identities in the United States. Off the course, Woods has emerged as a leading philanthropist.
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The Tiger Woods Foundation is one of the most successful charitable organizations created by an athlete. At the Tiger Woods Learning Center, the foundation focuses on providing educational opportunities to underserved populations through science and math training and scholarships. The foundation has raised more than $80 million to support its efforts since it was established in 1996.
USGA's Commitment to Preserving African American Golf History
As the global repository for golf’s shared history, the USGA Golf Museum and Library is committed to elevating diverse perspectives. The importance of chronicling the game’s place in Black culture and its broader impact on African American communities spurred the creation of resources to aid researchers in their analysis of two of the nation's longest running and most widely circulated African American newspapers.
The bibliographies and subject terms covering nearly 18,000 indexed articles have the power to greatly impact the world’s understanding and scholarly study of the African American experience in golf. Terms include general themes as well as any person, place, course, club, city or tournament mentioned in the article.
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At the foundation of this project are African American newspapers, a rich resource on the African American perspective during a time of misrepresentation and discrimination. Research resources are available for the Baltimore Afro-American from 1898 to 1988 and the Chicago Defender from 1909 to 1959.
The nation’s longest running African American newspaper, the Baltimore Afro-American served as the ultimate record of local Black experiences and provides insight into which national stories were important to these Eastern communities. The Chicago Defender, hailed as the most influential Black newspaper in the country, had a wider circulation and provided Southern and Midwestern communities information on the struggles of integration.
Nearly 8,700 articles spanning 1898 to 1988 are captured from the Baltimore Afro-American and included in the Bibliography. The Subject Terms include approximately 10,500 terms. Nearly 8,500 articles spanning from 1909 to 1959 are captured from the Chicago Defender and included in the Bibliography. Of these articles, those from July 1909 to July 1939 have been analyzed, and all terms added to the List of Terms.
The African American Golf History Archive
The African American Golf History Archive contains a variety of information on people, organizations, events and places critical to the history of African Americans in golf. The archive includes magazines, programs, clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, reports and club histories organized by subject matter.
The archive’s contents have been greatly enriched by generous donations of research materials by Dr. We hope to continue to expand these materials to provide a more comprehensive and representative resource.
The Museum’s collection of artifacts related to African Americans in the game spans from the turn of the century to the present day. Figures important to the history of golf, sports, politics and American culture are represented in the collection, including Joe Louis, John Shippen, Althea Gibson, Ann Gregory, Jesse Owens, Sammy Davis Jr., Lee Elder, Arthur Ashe, Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson, William Wright, Walter Morgan, and Barbara Douglas, as well as works by artists Dox Thrash and John Holyfield.
Key Moments and Achievements
When the presence of Shippen and Shinnecock tribe member Oscar Bunn was protested by several competitors, USGA President Theodore Havemeyer defended their inclusion. Talent would be the basis for competing in USGA championships, not race or ethnicity.
1956: The Chicago Women’s Golf Club becomes the first all-black Member Club of the USGA, which allows member Ann Gregory to compete in USGA championships.
1992: John Merchant becomes the African American to serve on the USGA Executive Committee. A lawyer and civil-rights activist, Merchant organized golf’s first minority golf symposium during his tenure and later served as the first executive director the National Minority Golf Foundation.
2009: Barbara Douglas becomes the first African American to chair the USGA Women’s Committee after serving as a member since 1993.
2013: Sheila Johnson becomes the first African-American female member of the USGA Executive Committee. When elected, she was the only African-American woman to have ownership of three professional sports teams.
Recognizing the USGA as the best repository for this shared history, the PGA of America and USGA create a joint task force to expand the collection and celebration of African American golf history.
2019: Lee Elder becomes the first African American to be awarded the USGA’s highest honor for distinguished sportsmanship in golf, the Bob Jones Award.
2023: Fred Perpall, a native of the Bahamas, is elected to serve as the 67th president of the USGA.
2024: The USGA Golf Museum and Library receives a donation of more than 200 artifacts celebrating Dr. William Powell, first African American to design, build, own, and operate a nine-hole golf course.
Clearview Golf Club: A Testament to Perseverance
With the financial assistance from his brother and two physicians, the 130-acre dairy land property was purchased. In October 1946, the Powell family began living on the purchased property, which had no indoor plumbing and no adequate heating. Powell worked a full-time job, repaired the family home, and labored with his bare hands to build Clearview Golf Club.
In 1948, Clearview Golf Club opened with nine holes. Powell became sole owner of Clearview Golf Club in 1956. The course expanded to 18 holes in 1978.
Powell was the recipient of the 1996 Unsung Hero Award presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses, the 2009 PGA Distinguished Service Award.
African American Golf in Indianapolis
African Americans have a rich history of golfing in Indianapolis, but that history was always shaped by segregation. Golf was introduced in the United States at the end of the 19th century, and the Indianapolis Country Club built a two-hole golf course in 1896 that was expanded to nine holes the following year (a course that is now the Woodstock Country Club).
Indianapolis’ first public nine-hole course was built at Riverside Park in 1900, and in 1901 Fleming was appointed as Riverside Park’s golfing instructor. In 1916, the national Professional Golfers Association decided that membership would only be open to whites (a code that did not change until 1961), so African American golfers formed their own organizations.
By 1925, Indianapolis had four municipal golf courses, but the Parks Department denied African Americans access to public links. In January 1928, the Recorder lamented that the poorly maintained course “has plenty of hazards, bunkers and the like, but they are not artificial. They are just as God made the land, rough, uneven, uncut grass, trees in fairways, even the ‘teeing ground’ is like a bunker.”
Construction inched along in May 1928, when Indianapolis Recorder columnist and golf booster Morris R.
The Colored Golf Association was renamed the United Golfers Association (UGA) in 1929, and national championship tournaments continued through 1941 and resumed after in 1946. The UGA National Negro Open Golf Championship was held at African American courses throughout the country, including Douglass Park in 1932.
Riverside Park’s golf instructor in 1901, Henry Fleming was a competitive player for four decades, playing in the UGA national championship in 1935.
claimed the title of Indianapolis’ champion in 1930 and 1932. Douglass Park players claimed seven UGA National Open Women’s Champions.
Douglass Park golfer Ella C. Abel competed in the first UGA Open Women’s Championship in 1930 before her first win in the 1934 tournament in Detroit and a repeat championship in 1935.
Douglass Park player Lucy Whitehead Williams won the women’s national championship in 1932 after being runner-up three years in a row (she was again runner-up in 1933 and 1934). A series of Douglass Park’s men’s players also were successful national players.
Former men’s national champion Thomas Edison Marshall moved to Indianapolis and became the Douglass Club pro in 1935. Marshall won the UGA National Championship in 1930 and 1931 and lost the 1932 championship at Douglass Park in a playoff (one of his three runner-up results).
Robert “Bobby” Obleton presided over the Colored Golf Association’s Indianapolis chapter in 1927 and taught at a short-lived golf school on in 1927.
George Roddy, who moved to Indianapolis to be the golf coach and an industrial arts teacher at segregated , was the first African American on the University of Iowa’s golf team, and he won the UGA National Open Championship amateur division in 1930 before his 1931 graduation. He subsequently coached golf at Arkansas State and North Carolina A&T and again won the UGA National Open Championship’s amateur division in 1937. In 1948, he began his career at Attucks but continued to golf competitively. In 1963, the 55-year-old Roddy became the first African American to win the Indianapolis Golf Association’s city title.
In 1948, the UGA held its tournament at the Coffin Golf Course in Riverside Park, and the organization returned for the 1964 championship, when former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis was runner-up for the amateur crown. Many private country clubs, however, remained segregated for most of the 20th century.
Golf in Minnesota
Charles Rodgers started playing golf at age five in his hometown of Memphis, TN, because his mother played golf. Rodgers spent many days on the golf course playing and as a caddy. However, because of segregation, blacks were not allowed to play at white golf courses, though some courses allowed blacks to play occasionally.
“They let the kids play, but not adults. Golf and the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) have had a long history of racism where African American golfers were excluded from golf courses, tournaments, and membership. From 1934 to 1961, the PGA had a “Caucasian only” clause in its bylaws that prevented blacks from membership.
Minnesota was not immune to the PGA’s “whites only” policy, and blacks were prohibited from competing in local golf tournaments. As a result, in 1931, Jimmie Slemmons, a Minneapolis resident, founded the Twin City Golf Club as an association of black golfers. Slemmons created the Minnesota Negro Open golf tournament in 1939 to give blacks an opportunity to play and compete. The tournament was renamed the Upper Midwest Bronze Amateur Tournament and attracted participants from around the country. Former heavyweight champion Joe Louis won the tournament in 1957.
Slemmons, who passed away in 1983, stated in interviews that he started the club because blacks could not join golf clubs, which prevented them from establishing handicaps and competing in tournaments. He said black golfers were not explicitly told they could not join clubs but instead were given various excuses, including that membership was full.
Minneapolis golf professional Solomon Hughes was a top-rated player on the United Golfers Association (UGA) tour. Founded in the 1920s, the UGA was a national association for black golfers, and it sponsored the National Negro Open, which Hughes won in 1935. Hughes grew up in segregated Alabama and learned to play golf by caddying.
