Facts: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was born in 1927 on a cotton farm in North Carolina, but she grew up in New York, where her family moved in 1930 due to the Great Depression. He made his racket debut on the streets of Harlem playing paddle tennis, a game adapted from the game. tennisplayed on a smaller court without doubles (not to be confused with the sport known in modern times as padel).
Young Althea quickly excelled in the sport and became the New York Rowing Champion in 1939 at the age of 12. Thanks to his collection of neighbors, he was able to become a member and take lessons at the Harlem Cosmopolitan Tennis Club, a club for African-American players.
In 1941, Althea Gibson began playing in the American Tennis Association (ATA), the African-American equivalent of the USLTA (United States Lawn Tennis Association). With the financial backing of famous boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, Gibson captured junior national championships and in 1947 won the first of 10 consecutive ATA women’s national titles. His strength and speed allowed him to dominate the court.
Gibson’s success was noted by philanthropists Walter Johnson and Hubert A. Eaton. With their help, she was able to compete in bigger tennis events, but the USLTA tournaments remained closed to her. The USLTA did not officially allow racial segregation in tennis events, but many of its tournaments were actually held at all-white country clubs. Finally, Althea Gibson stepped into this world in 1949, becoming the first black woman to compete in the USTA National Indoor Championships, where she reached the quarterfinals.
- Gibson finally gets to play in the US Nationals
But it wasn’t until 1950 that he could compete in the USTA’s most important tournament, the National Championship at Forest Hills. After being denied entry for several years in a row, it took intense lobbying by former champion Alice Marble to get the organization to allow Althea Gibson to compete. In a letter to USLTA magazine, Marble wrote: “If tennis is a ladies’ and gentlemen’s game, it’s also time we behaved more like gentle people and less like sacrilegious hypocrites… If Althea Gibson poses a challenge to the current growth of female players, it’s only fair that they rise to the challenge.”
Gibson then entered the Forest Hills tournament and won her first round match against Barbara Knapp before losing to defending champion Louise Brow. Wimbledon champion in a two-day match due to a rain delay. It was an important moment in the history of tennis, as the athlete David Eisenberg said Sports Illustrated“I have been part of many dramatic moments in sport, but few have been more exciting than Miss Gibson’s performance against Miss Brough. Not because he played great tennis, because he didn’t. But because of the great experience of this lonely and nervous colored girl.”
Gibson’s entry into America’s biggest tennis event wasn’t just the story of a tennis player reaching her peak. For the African-American community, it was comparable to Jackie Robinson in 1947 when he became the first black player to play in a Major League Baseball game. It was an important event in the civil rights struggle.
At the 1951 Caribbean Championships in Jamaica, Gibson won her first international tournament, and in July she became the first black woman to play at Wimbledon, reaching the third round.
In 1956, Gibson traveled to Paris for the first time to play French Open Championship as the No. 3 seed. There, she dropped only one set en route to the final, in the semifinals against Angela Buxton, which she defeated 2–6, 6–0, 6–4.
- Gibson makes history by winning a Grand Slam title
On Saturday, May 26, 1956, Althea Gibson defeated world No. 1 Angela Mortimer for the first time in five matches, 6–0, 12–10 (the tiebreak had not yet been introduced), and she became the first black athlete in tennis history to claim a Grand Slam.
African-American champion MaliWai Washington, runner-up at Wimbledon 40 years later, in 1996. shall recap for ESPN The effect of this victory. “In every sport, there are coaches that we look at and say, ‘Hey! “If it wasn’t for this person, I might not be where I am today.” Everyone has said that about Arthur Ashe, but nearly a decade before Ashe won Grand Slam titles, Gibson had already won them, the first African-American to ever do so. But when he was winning, tennis masters didn’t get the global attention they do today. As a result, many young tennis players today don’t know much about Gibson, who broke barriers when the sport was mostly played in country clubs.”
The following year, 1957, Althea Gibson set new records by winning Wimbledon and US Open:. At the “All England Club” he won in front of Queen Elizabeth II; “Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a far cry from sitting in the colored section of the bus.”
On July 11, returning to New York, she became only the second black American woman, after the 1936 Olympic champion. Jesse Owenshonored ribbon parade. In 1958, she was the first black woman to grace the cover of Time and Sports Illustrated magazines.
In total, Gibson won five Grand Slam singles titles, five doubles titles and one mixed doubles title in three years. In late 1958, he decided to turn professional, signing with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to play exhibition games before their games. However, he was very disappointed with the course of his professional career.
“When I looked around, I saw white tennis players, some of whom I had beaten on the court, collecting offers and invitations,” he later wrote. “Suddenly I realized that my victories had not destroyed racial barriers once and for all, as I, perhaps naively, had hoped.” At the same time, being a talented singer, she recorded an album with the title Althea Gibson sings.
- Gibson becomes a professional golfer
Breaking barriers in tennis wasn’t enough for Althea Gibson, and in 1964 she began a professional career in golf. Still suffering from racial prejudice, sometimes having to dress in his car because country clubs still did not allow blacks on their grounds, he rose to world number 27 and retired in 1978.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Gibson was very busy, involved in politics and running tennis coaching programs. Future Wimbledon runner-up Zeena Garrison benefited from Gibson’s coaching in her early years. Unfortunately, in the late 1980s he suffered serious health problems, leaving him without financial means. He got back on his feet with the help of his longtime friend, former tennis player Angela Buxton, who stirred the pot to raise nearly $1 million for Gibson.
- The Williams sisters carry on Gibson’s legacy
41 years ago, another African American, Serena Williams, won a Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open. According to Williams’ sister Venus, Althea Gibson watched the finale happy to see another black woman in her life win.
Before her death on September 28, 2003, Gibson had the opportunity to see the Williams sisters climb the world’s highest peaks, facing each other in four consecutive Grand Slam finals. Serena acknowledged Gibson’s legacy as she told wtatennis.com: “For me, he was the most important pioneer of tennis. He was black, he was like me, and he opened so many doors.”
What next? Gisbon is honored at the US Open
Sixteen years later, Althea Gisbon’s actions will be honored at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center with the unveiling of a statue of her in front of Arthur Ashe Stadium, named after the first African-American to play on the United States Davis Cup team and win the US Open.