Before his term at Central City, he was a professor at the Atlanta Baptist Institute (now Morehouse College).

Along with theology and literature, he studied Hebrew under William R. Harper of Yale University and German and French.

He married Elizabeth Beasley, a public school teacher and graduate of Atlanta University on July 15, 1885.

[5] In November 1895, he spoke at the National Negro Congress and was an organizer of the African American exhibition at the 1895 Worlds' Fair in New Orleans.

The attempt failed and Holmes moved to Macon, Georgia where he opened Central City College.

[7] Holmes had expected to be appointed president of the Institute in 1890, and when he was passed over in favor of Sale, a white minister from Canada, he questioned his chance for promotion.

[8] Prominent in support of this effort was Emanuel K. Love, a preacher from Savannah, Georgia, who organized the purchase of the college land.

[9] In Jun 1921, the college administration building and Holmes personal residence were burned by an arsonist who was described as insane.