Holmes served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1974 to 2008. In 2006, Holmes was re-elected as a Democrat to his seventeenth term, representing the 53rd district. He was a member of the Appropriations and Rules Committees and served as chairman of the Education Committee. Holmes served as chair of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus in 1990 and 1991. He successfully sponsored or co-sponsored more than 200 laws that have been passed in the Georgia General Assembly.[1]
Until his retirement in 2005, Holmes was director of the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Clark Atlanta University.[1]
Distinctions
Holmes serves on the board of directors of the Capital City Bank and Trust, the JOMANDI Theater Company, the Sickle Cell Foundation, the Road Runners Club of America and the Metro-Atlanta YMCA.
Walton, Jr, Hanes (1994). Black politics and Black political behavior: a linkage analysis. Praeger. ISBN978-0-275-94988-4.
Holmes, Robert A., "Reapportionment Strategies for the 1990s: The Case of Georgia", chapter in Race and Redistricting in the 1990s edited by Bernard Grofman Algora Publishing (August 2003) ISBN978-0-87586-262-0