Today, watching Venus and Serena Williams dominate the sport of women's tennis with their talent and flair, it is hard to imagine that just over fifty years ago African-American tennis players were barred from competing on the grandest stages of their sport. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, but the walls that kept African-Americans from playing professional sports did not come tumbling down overnight. Almost four years passed from Jackie Robinson's major league debut until a female African-American made a similar impact upon the sport of women's tennis. That woman's name was Althea Gibson.
Althea Gibson was born on a cotton farm on August 25, 1927, in Silver, South Carolina. The early stages of the Great Depression forced her sharecropper father to move the family from the bucolic Silver to the urban bustle of New York City when she was just three years old. As a child growing up in the Harlem section of the Manhattan, Althea found she had an affinity for athletics. Basketball and paddle tennis were her favorite sports, and she excelled at both. In fact, her talent at paddle tennis was so remarkable that in 1939 she won her age group at the New York City paddle tennis championships. Shortly after, a very good friend of Althea's suggested that she try lawn tennis. She showed an incredible aptitude for the sport and her play caught the attention of members of the predominately African-American Harlem Cosmopolitan Tennis Club, who helped her raise money to become a member. At the age of fourteen, Althea took her first real tennis lesson at the club under the tutelage of one-armed tennis coach Fred Johnson. She would never look back.br />
A year later in 1942, the major governing body for African-American tennis tournaments--the American Tennis Association (ATA)--sponsored the New York Girls Singles Championship at Althea's club. With her aggressive and dominating style of play, she won the title easily. It was her first of what was to be many victories, on and off the court. Althea dropped out of high school shortly after winning the New York Girls Championship. She found the classes boring and wanted to concentrate on tennis. Her decision raised many eyebrows amongst members of the ATA, who had hoped that she would become one of the sport's new stars. She was encouraged to leave New York City and move to Wilmington, North Carolina to live with the family of Hubert Eaton, a wealthy doctor who was active in the African-American tennis community. Dr. Eaton welcomed Althea into his family. He not only offered her guidance with her tennis career, he also convinced her to finish the remaining three years of high school. While living with the Eaton family in Wilmington, she would travel around the country to compete in ATA tournaments. By the time she graduated in 1949, Althea had already won the first two of what would be ten consecutive ATA national titles. She was regarded by many as one of the most impressive young talents in the female game, but because of segregation she was not permitted to practice on any of the public courts in Wilmington.
She was also yet to be invited to any of the major segregated tournaments. By early 1950 Althea was making some headway. She was the first African American to play in the national indoor tournament, where she finished second. Althea believed her two national championships and her strong showing at the indoor tournament was proof that she was one of female tennis's elite players. She and the ATA tried to lobby the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) for an invitation to the 1950 U.S. Nationals, but despite the ATA's efforts and Althea's obvious merit, the USLTA failed to extend her an invitation. Not every member of the USLTA was pleased with the organization's decision. Former U.S. National and Wimbledon champion Alice Marble wrote a scathing editorial in the July 1950 issue of American Lawn Tennis magazine criticizing the USLTA's segregationist stance.
Ms. Marble wrote, "The entrance of (African-Americans) into national tennis is as inevitable as it has proven in baseball, in football, or in boxing; there is no denying so much talent. . . . 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." The editorial caused a national uproar that quickly led the USLTA to finally extend Althea an invitation to play in the 1950 U.S. Nationals tournament. This invitation would open many doors for Althea, and the following year she was the first African American to compete at Wimbledon.
It took a few years for Althea to adjust to the world-class level of play. She won her first major tournament in 1956 and would dominate the sport for the next five years, winning six doubles titles and a total of eleven Grand Slam events including the U.S. Nationals and Wimbledon twice. Yet even at the height of her career as an international tennis champ, Althea was forced to endure discrimination. She was often refused hotels rooms and reservations at restaurants simply because of her skin color. Althea once said that her extraordinary success was the product of being "game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way." The pioneering example set by Althea Gibson paved the way for future generations of African-American tennis players, and proved that beyond her tennis glory she was a true champion of the human spirit.
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