Althea Gibson

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Althea Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was an American sportswoman who, on August 22, 1950, became the first African-American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour. She is sometimes referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of tennis" for breaking the "color barrier".

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[edit] Biography

Born in Silver, South Carolina, Gibson was raised in Harlem, New York City, where she excelled in horsemanship but also competed in golf, basketball, and paddle tennis. Musician Buddy Walker noticed her playing table tennis and introduced her to tennis at the Harlem River Tennis Courts. With the assistance of a sponsor, she moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1946 for tennis training, and in 1947 at the age of 20, she won the first of ten straight national championships run by the American Tennis Association, the then governing body for black tournaments. Forced to play in what was basically a segregated sport, at age twenty-three Gibson was finally given the opportunity to participate in the 1950 U.S. Championships at Forest Hills, Queens.

Gibson continued to improve her tennis game while pursuing an education. In 1953, she graduated from Florida A&M University on a tennis and basketball scholarship and moved to Jefferson City, Missouri to work as an athletic instructor at Lincoln University. With the color barrier broken, she was able to compete against the best and her game improved to where she won the 1955 Italian Championships. The following year, she won her first of the 4 Grand Slam events in Paris, capturing the French Championships in singles and also in doubles with her partner, Englishwoman Angela Buxton. She followed up by becoming the first black person to win a Wimbledon Championship, again capturing the doubles title with Buxton. At the US Championships that year, she made it to the singles final where she lost to Shirley Fry.

In 1957, Gibson lost the finals of the Australian Open, again to Shirley Fry, but the two teamed to capture the doubles title. At Wimbledon, Gibson won her first of two straight singles championships and, upon returning to the United States, was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City and an official welcome at New York City Hall. She responded by winning the US Championships. For her performance that year, Gibson earned the No. 1 ranking in the world and was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.

In 1958, after defending her Wimbledon singles title and winning her third consecutive Wimbledon doubles championship, Gibson again won the singles title at the US Championships. She was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year. That year, Althea Gibson retired from what was then still called amateur tennis. In the pre-open era, there was no prize money other than an expense allowance and no endorsement deals. As such, tennis players had to give up their amateur status in order to earn prize money. As there was no pro tour for women, Gibson was limited to playing in a series of exhibition tours.

In retirement, Gibson wrote her autobiography and in 1959 recorded an album, Althea Gibson Sings, as well as appearing in the motion picture, The Horse Soldiers. In 1964, she also became the first African-American woman to play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). However, she was too old to be successful and only played for a few years.

In 1971, Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 1975 she was appointed the New Jersey state commissioner of athletics. After ten years on the job, she went on to work in other public service positions, including serving on the governor's council on physical fitness. In later years, she suffered two cerebral aneurysms and a stroke.

In 2003, at the age of 76, Althea Gibson died in East Orange, New Jersey due to respiratory failure and was interred there in the Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, New Jersey.

[edit] Grand Slam Titles

[edit] Singles (5)

  • French Open : (1956)
  • Wimbledon : (1957, 1958)
  • US Open : (1957, 1958)

[edit] Doubles (5)

  • Australian (1957)
  • French Open : (1956)
  • Wimbledon : (1956, 1957, 1958)

[edit] Mixed Doubles (1)

  • US Open : (1957)

[edit] Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Tournament 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 Career SR
Australia A A A A A A A F A 0 / 1
France A A A A A A W A A 1 / 1
Wimbledon A 3R A A A A QF W W 2 / 4
United States 2R 3R 3R QF 1R 3R F W W 2 / 9
SR 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 1 1 / 3 2 / 3 2 / 2 5 / 15

A = did not participate in the tournament

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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