Why do we love Althea?

Imagine winning the premiere event in your sport and not being allowed to stay in the same hotel as the rest of the players. As a black woman breaking into the very white world of tennis, Althea Gibson faced such obstacles. Her parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina who moved to Harlem when she was three. When musician Buddy Walker saw Althea playing table tennis he thought she might also excel at tennis and took her to the Harlem River Tennis Courts. She learned the game and soon began winning tournaments in the American Tennis Association, an all-black tennis league. Althea further honed her game when a wealthy South Carolina businessman opened his home and private tennis court to her. She continued to win on the ATA but was still denied entrance into other tournaments.

It took four-time U.S. Nationals champion Alice Marble's scathing letter in the July 1950 issue of American Lawn Tennis magazine, taking the sport to task for denying Althea entrance into U.S. Lawn Tennis Association tournaments that finally allowed Althea to break the all-white barrier. In 1950, she became the first African-American, man or woman, to play at Forest Hills, the home of the U.S. Nationals. In 1951, she broke that barrier at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, the site of Wimbledon. In her fourth year on the tour, 1956, Althea won her first major, the French championship. The following year she made history again, becoming the first African-American to win the most coveted title in tennis, the Wimbledon championship. She won the U.S. National title a few months later. At 5'11", her impressive reach, booming serve, and aggressive play served notice that African-Americans could not only compete, but win at the top level of tennis.

Biography:

Born - August 25, 1927
Silver, South Carolina

Achievements:

• Grand Slam Titles:
  
  Singles Championships
• French (1956)
• Wimbledon (1957, 1958)
• U.S. Nationals (1957, 1958)

Doubles Championships
• French (1956)
• Wimbledon (1956, 1957, 1958)
• U.S. Nationals (1957) mixed

• Graduated from Florida A&M University (1954)
• Named Associated Press Female of the Year (1957, 1958)
• Her autobiography I Always Wanted to Be Somebody is published in 1958
• 1964 became the first African-American member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA)
• Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, 1971
• International Women's Sports Hall of Fame inaugural member, 1980