Althea Gibson is noted not only for her exceptional abilities as a tennis player, but for breaking the color barrier in the s as the first African American to compete in national and international tennis.
She was the first of Daniel and Anna Washington Gibson's five children. Her parents worked on a cotton farm, but when she was three years old the family moved north to the Harlem area of New York City. Gibson caused a lot of problems as a child and often missed school.
Her father was very strict with her on these occasions, but he also taught her to box, a skill that he figured would come in handy in the rough neighborhood the Gibson family lived in. In PAL promoted paddle ball a game similar to handball except that it is played using a wooden racket competitions in Harlem.
After three summers of playing the game Gibson was so good that the Cosmopolitan Tennis Club sponsored her to learn the game of tennis and proper social behavior.
In several politically minded African Americans identified Gibson as having the talent to help break down organized racism unequal treatment based on race in the United States. Gibson lost her first match of the tournament, but the breakthrough had been made.
Over the next several years Gibson worked as a physical education teacher at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. After a year of touring the world and playing special events for the U. State Department, Gibson staged a full-scale assault on the tennis world in That year she won the French Open in both singles and doubles.
Open at Forest Hills, New York. Although she lost narrowly to Louise Brough, the reigning Wimbledon champion, the following year she won her first international title, the Caribbean Championship in Jamaica in In , the U. State Department sent her on a goodwill tour of Asia. When the tour was over, she remained abroad, winning sixteen of eighteen tournaments in Europe and Asia. She was too old and too slow-footed, however, to keep up with her younger counterparts.
She stayed connected to sports, however, through a number of service positions. Beginning in , she served 10 years as Commissioner of Athletics for the state of New Jersey.
She nearly went bankrupt before former tennis great Billy Jean King and others stepped in to help her out. Her health, too, went into decline. She suffered a stroke and developed serious heart problems.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Historically, Black women in sports faced double discrimination due to their gender and race. A number of African American female athletes have emerged as trailblazers in their particular sports over the years, from track and field and tennis to figure skating and basketball.
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Open in Gibson blazed a new trail in the sport of tennis, winning some of the sport's biggest titles in the s, and broke racial barriers in professional golf as well. At a young age, Gibson moved with her family to Harlem, a neighborhood in the borough of New York City. Gibson's life at this time had its hardships. Her family struggled to make ends meet, living on public assistance for a time, and Gibson struggled in the classroom, often skipping school altogether.
However, Gibson loved to play sports — especially paddle tennis — and she soon made a name for herself as a local paddle tennis champion. Her skills were eventually noticed by musician Buddy Walker, who invited her to play tennis on local courts. After winning several tournaments hosted by the local recreation department, Gibson was introduced to the Harlem River Tennis Courts in Incredibly, just a year after picking up a racket for the first time, she won a local tournament sponsored by the American Tennis Association, an African American organization established to promote and sponsor tournaments for Black players.
She picked up two more ATA titles in and Then, after losing one title in , Gibson won 10 straight championships from to Amidst this winning streak, she made history as the first African American tennis player to compete at both the U.
National Championships and Wimbledon She graduated from the school in , but it was a struggle for her to get by. At one point, she even thought of leaving sports altogether to join the U.
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