Late last year Ms. Althea Gibson died. A legend for being the first Black woman to break the color code in female tennis, Ms. Gibson paved the way for our African American tennis stars of today, like the Williams sisters. Althea Gibson overcame the barrier of segregation with her talent and determination, becoming the first African American athlete to compete and win at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in Forest Hills, NY. She also became the first African American to play in the French Open and the first to play in American Lawn Tennis tournaments.

Gibson was born in 1927, in South Carolina, but grew up in Harlem. A tall, athletic teen with an affinity for competition, she was winning table tennis tournaments sponsored by the Police Athletic League and the NYC Parks Department when she was discovered by musician and P.A.L., coach Buddy Walker. He gave her a tennis racket and arranged for her to learn tennis. Later in her life, Gibson told a biographer that "I just found I had a skill at hitting that ball. And I enjoyed the competition." She went on to become the top player in the American Tennis Association, an African American organization, for seven years.

From her exposure in the ATA, in 1946 she was noticed and assisted by two tennis-playing African American doctors from the South, who took her to live with their families and provided her with private tennis lessons. They also encouraged her to re-enroll in and graduate from high school; she had quit school while living in Harlem.

Gibson won the national Black women's tennis championship twice, but each time she applied for the U.S. Nationals, she was blocked from competition by a policy of racial discrimination by the American Lawn Tennis Association. This continued until a former winner of the U.S. Nationals, Alice Marble, wrote a scathing letter to the editors of American Lawn Tennis Magazine, calling for an end to "the bigotry" in that organization: "If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of players, then it's only fair that they meet this challenge on the courts." Soon thereafter, the organization invited Gibson to the 1950 U.S. Nationals.

Gibson was ranked 9th among American women by 1952. She went on to win the French championships in 1956, and won the women's doubles title in France and at Wimbledon, paired with Englishwoman Angela Buxton. She won several singles tournaments around the world that year, then won the women's singles competition at Wimbledon in 1957, defeating Darlene Hard. In September, 1957, Gibson won the U.S. Championship. In addition, paired with Hard, she won the women's doubles at Wimbledon and with Kurt Nielsen, won the mixed doubles title at Forest Hills. The Associated Press named her the Female Athlete of the Year, an honor repeated in 1958. She turned professional in 1958 and wrote an autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody. Gibson went on to play professional golf, and to teach tennis.

Throughout her successful amateur tennis career, Althea Gibson contended with racial discrimination and bigotry. Many hotels refused her rooms and some clubs where tournaments were held refused to treat her with the same respect as the white players. Her determination to excel in the face of these obstacles is what makes Althea Gibson an inspiration--she just wanted an opportunity to compete and achieve what she was meant to achieve as an athlete. "People thought I was ruthless," she said. "I was. I didn't give a darn who was on the other side of the net. I'd knock you down if you got in the way. I just wanted to play my best."

Althea Gibson lives in New Jersey.[]

by
Susan Robinson

Home