Bonnie Brae Golf Course

In 1951 African American residents of Charlotte initiated a lawsuit to integrate the public Bonnie Brae Golf Course.  As state NAACP president Kelly Alexander summarizes in a letter to national director Thurgood Marshall, "on December 12 and 13, 1951, 16 Negro golfers applied for admission to play golf on the Bonnie Brae Gold Course, which is owned and operated by the City of Charlotte, through its Parks and Recreation Commission."  Admission was denied to all sixteen.

The above petition was presented to the city on December 20.  The Parks Commission filed a suit in the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County on January 7, 1952, claiming that admission of the African American golfers would violate deed restrictions, thereby reverting the property to the donors.

Unsatisfied with the results, the golfers filed a suit against the city, Parks Commission, and golf course on April 4, "asking for relief by declaratory judgment and injunction against the racial discrimination claimed to be practiced as respects the course."

At the time of Alexander's letter in June 1954, the golfers' suit had survived a motion to dismiss in Superior Court and was awaiting new legal counsel from the NAACP to advance the case.  The suit eventually made its way to the Supreme Court in March 1956 where the writ of centiorari, or appeal for a higher court to review, was denied.  The North Carolina Supreme Court ruling that the property would revert back to the original donor was upheld.

Although the suit was unsuccessful, this action prompted the city to be more proactive on race relations.  Sixty years later, the course was renamed the Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park in honor of the Charlotte native, the first African American to play on the PGA Tour.