Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2022 - 24

" He loved the game so much that he was
willing to share tips with anybody.
He taught a lot of black golfers when he
came to Minnesota. " -Soli Hughes
his young family north in 1943 to escape
the harsh segregation and discrimination
of the Jim Crow South.
" Solomon Hughes gave the Bronze
Tournament momentum, " says Darwin
Dean, a retired technical project management
professional from Wells Fargo, who's
been president of the Upper Midwest
Amateur Memorial Bronze Tournament
since 2011. " He had a bunch of hackers
out there trying to learn to play golf, and
he gave them instruction at a professional
level. [He] told Joe Louis 'I want to spend
more time at home with my family, so I
can't be your personal trainer.' He was
a man who knew the value of being at
home and raising your family. "
Dean said Solomon brought relevance
and revenue to the Bronze Tournament.
Friends such as Louis came to play and
many others came with him. As a pro,
Solomon never competed in the Bronze
(which began as an amateur event), but
he taught many who won it how to play
the game.
" He loved the game so much that he
was willing to share tips with anybody, "
Soli says. " He taught a lot of black golfers
when he came to Minnesota. He joined
the Twin Cities Golf Club, which was a
consortium of black golfers, and gave a
lot of golf lessons to the players. "
Solomon and his wife, Bessie, took their
two young daughters Antionette and Joyce
(they would have another daughter Shirley
before Soli) north to find an improved
racial climate, greater educational opportunities
and a better life in Minnesota. But
they found Minneapolis wasn't as racially
enlightened as they'd hoped-particularly
on the golf course. At the time, no public
or private courses would hire Solomon as a
pro, despite his qualifications.
Solomon worked, instead, as a pullman
on the Great Northern Railway and a sky24
cap
for Northwest Airlines to support his
family, but struggled to make headway in
the sport that still segregated black golfers.
He found solace at his beloved Hiawatha
GC, where he continued to practice, play
and perfect his craft even though he was
not allowed entrance into the clubhouse;
Bessie made him sandwiches for lunch that
he quietly ate on the building's front steps.
" He never spoke about the things that
happened to him. He never brought
it home, " Soli says. " When he was at
Northwest, I witnessed a white guy calling
my dad a derogatory name, and my dad
didn't flinch. He took the bags and walked
into the airport, and he never spoke of that. "
The Closed Open
Solomon continued to travel and play
tournaments (including three successive
UGA wins in 1945), but like other
black golfers, he was refused entrance
into events run by the PGA Tournament
Bureau-which maintained a Caucasianonly
policy since 1934. Solomon was 40 in
1948 and qualified for the St. Paul Open at
Keller Golf Course, but was denied entry
because he didn't belong to the PGA,
which wouldn't grant him membership.
Other black golfers of the time, such
as Bill Spiller, Ted Rhodes and Madison
Gunther, filed a lawsuit over similar treatment
at the Los Angeles Open, stirring up
long-hardened soil. Although the PGA dug
in their heels, a movement had begun, and
Hughes and his friend Rhodes continued
the fight at the St. Paul Open. Though both
qualified, Hughes and Rhodes were denied
entry to that 1948 event.
Cecil Newman, editor of the Minneapolis
Spokesman newspaper,
jumped into the
fray, pointing out the discrimination and
how the major Twin Cities dailies' scant
coverage missed the mark. Newman
alleged that the PGA had printed tickets
for the St. Paul " Open " but changed its
designation to " invitational " after receiving
the black players' entry forms.
" The black press highlighted people
like Solomon, " says Charles Hallman, a
recent US Basketball Writers Association
Hall of Fame inductee who has written
about Hughes for the Spokesman. " A lot
In June 2022, the clubhouse at Hiawatha Golf
Club was renamed after Solomon Hughes Sr.
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2022
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Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2022

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