Rhodes, Ted
1913-1969 · Contribution: 1940s-1960s
Golfer
Pioneering African American professional golfer; dominant on the all-Black United Golfers Association (UGA) tour and an early challenger of the PGA's whites-only membership clause

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Quick facts
- Born
- 1913, Nashville, Tennessee
- Active since
- 1946
- Category
- Sports & Athletics
- Best known for
- Pioneering Black professional golfer who challenged the PGA color bar
Impact on the world
Rhodes was among the finest Black golfers of his era and helped lead the legal challenge to the PGA's 'Caucasian-only' clause, opening the professional game to the Black players who followed.
An alternative history
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Sources
- Source lookupFind
Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame
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Related visionaries
Sifford, Charlie
1922-2015
First Black member of the PGA Tour; first Black golfer to win a PGA Tour event
Elder, Lee
1934-2021
Professional golfer; the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament (1975)
Shippen, John
1879-1968
Early American golf professional; the first American-born and first African American golf professional to play in a U.S. Open (1896), and long-time professional at the Black-owned Shady Rest club
Powell, Renee
1946-present
Pioneering professional golfer and golf-club operator; the second African American woman to play on the LPGA Tour (1967), and since the mid-1990s the head professional and operator of Clearview Golf Club, the course her father built