Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was the first African American to play international professional tennis, the first black player from any nation, for that matter. Born in South Carolina in 1927, the depression soon caused her family to relocate to Harlem in New York City, where her father found work. Althea learned to play paddle tennis and by the age of 12 she was one of the best female paddle tennis players in New York, demonstrating her proficiency by winning several informal matches and tournaments. In 1941 jazz musician Buddy Walker bought her the first stringed racket she ever owned, she began to develop her tennis skills.
She rapidly improved as a tennis player, winning several state championships sanctioned by the American Tennis Association. In 1947 she attracted the attention of Dr. Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia, who provided the means for her to receive better instruction and helped her enter more prestigious tournaments. Still, she was denied entry to many tournaments which would have helped her career because of them being held in white only clubs. This inability to earn the points acquired through playing in sanctioned events denied her entry into the United States National Championships, the precursor to the US Open Tennis Championships.
In 1949 Gibson entered Florida A & M under a full scholarship. While there a letter campaign conducted by her supporters directly to the USTA and to magazines and newspapers pressured for changes in the way athletes were considered for the US Nationals. In 1950 she was given an invitation to compete in the Nationals at Forest Hills. She lost in the second round to the reigning Wimbledon champion in a three set match. She was the first black athlete to appear at Flushing Meadows, the first to appear in international tennis competition, and she received massive media coverage around the world.
She was soon winning consistently, despite having to compete not only with her opponents, but also with the racial prejudices and Jim Crow laws which were gradually yielding to efforts to eradicate them. In 1956 she became the first African American to win the French Open Women’s Singles Championship, making her also the first to win a Grand Slam event. The following July she became the first black player to win a Wimbledon Championship. Her trophy was presented to her by Queen Elizabeth II. She described the event as being “…a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus.”
Gibson eventually won 56 national and international titles in singles and doubles, all of them as an amateur. She became a professional in 1958, but there was little money to be made in endorsements at the time, and tournaments carried no prize money. In 1964 she became a member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, their first African American player. She found that the racial barriers which she had helped break down in tennis were still thriving among the country clubs where golf tournaments were played, especially in the South. Today Althea Gibson, who died in 2003, is honored nationally and internationally for her achievements in athletics and racial equality.