Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam event (the French Open). The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor of the US Open), then won both again in 1958 and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam titles: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title.A&E Television Networks (2014) "She is one of the greatest players who ever lived," said Bob Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. "Martina [Navratilova] couldn't touch her. I think she'd beat the Williams sisters." Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. In the early 1960s, she also became the first Black player to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
At a time when racism and prejudice were widespread in sports and in society, Gibson was often compared to Jackie Robinson. "Her road to success was a challenging one," said Billie Jean King "but I never saw her back down." "To anyone, she was an inspiration, because of what she was able to do at a time when it was enormously difficult to play tennis at all if you were Black." said former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. "I am honored to have followed in such great footsteps," wrote Venus Williams. "Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself and Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on."Lewis, Jone Johnson. Women's History. About.com archive . Retrieved February 19, 2013.
Early life and education Gibson was born on August 25, 1927, in the town of Silver, in Clarendon County, South Carolina, to Daniel and Annie Bell Gibson, who worked as sharecroppers on a cotton farm. The Great Depression hit rural southern farmers sooner than much of the rest of the country,Poston, T (August 26, 1957). "The Story of Althea Gibson". New York Post, p. M2. so in 1930 the family moved to Harlem as part of the Great Migration, where Althea's three sisters and brother were born."That Gibson Girl." Time, August 26, 1957, p. 45.
Their apartment was located on a stretch of 143rd Street (between Lenox Avenue and Seventh Avenue) that had been designated a Police Athletic League play area; during daylight hours it was barricaded so that neighborhood children could play organized sports.Osofsky, G: Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York, 1890–1930. New York: Harper & Row, 1963, p. 129. Gibson quickly became proficient in paddle tennis, and by 1939, at the age of 12, she was the New York City women's paddle tennis champion.
Gibson quit school at the age of 13 and, using the boxing skills taught to her by her father, engaged in a life of what she would later refer to as "street fighting", girls basketball, and watching movies. Fearful of her father's violent behavior, after dropping out of school, she spent some time living in a Catholic protective shelter for abused children.
In 1940, a group of Gibson's neighbors took up a collection to finance a junior membership and lessons at the Cosmopolitan Tennis Club in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem. At first, Gibson didn't like tennis, a sport she thought was for weak people. As she explained, "I kept wanting to fight the other player every time I started to lose a match." In 1941, she entered—and won—her first tournament, the American Tennis Association (ATA) New York State Championship. She won the ATA national championship in the girls' division in 1944 and 1945, and after losing in the women's final in 1946 to Roumania Peters, won her first of ten straight national ATA women's titles in 1947. "I knew that I was an unusual, talented girl, through the grace of God," she wrote. "I didn't need to prove that to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents.""That Gibson Girl". Time, August 26, 1957, p. 46.
Gibson had a very aggressive style of play, which would still be out of place even today. She had a powerful and versatile serve that she could use to manipulate her opponent's position on the court, leaving her with space to make an easy point. Gibson played close to the net, preferring to make points herself instead of waiting for her opponent to make an error.
Gibson's ATA success drew the attention of Walter Johnson, a Lynchburg, Virginia, physician who was active in the African American tennis community. Under Johnson's patronage—he would later mentor Arthur Ashe as well—Gibson gained access to more advanced instruction and more important competitions, and later, to the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA, later known as the USTA).Biography of Althea Gibson. altheagibson.com . Retrieved March 18, 2013.
In 1946, she moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, under the sponsorship of another physician and tennis activist, Hubert A. EatonHubert A. Eaton. nhcs.net archive Retrieved March 18, 2013. and enrolled at the racially segregated Williston Industrial High School. In 1949, she became the first Black woman, and the second Black athlete (after Reginald Weir), to play in the USTA's National Indoor Championships, where she reached the quarter-finals.Ashe, A: A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. New York: Amistad/Warner Books, 1988. Vol. 3, p. 167. Later that year she entered Florida A&M University (FAMU) on a full athletic scholarship and was a member of the Beta Alpha chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Amateur career
Despite her growing reputation as an elite-level player, Gibson was effectively barred from entering the premier American tournament, the United States National Championships (now the US Open) at Forest Hills. While USTA rules officially prohibited racial or ethnic discrimination, players qualified for the Nationals by accumulating points at sanctioned tournaments, most of which were held at white-only clubs. In 1950, in response to intense lobbying by ATA officials and retired champion Alice Marble—who published a scathing open letter in the magazine American Lawn Tennis"We can accept the evasions", Marble wrote, "or we can face the issue squarely and honestly ... It so happens that I tan very easily in the summer—but I doubt that anyone ever questioned my right to play in the Nationals because of it." Let Us Remember Alice Marble, the Catalyst for Althea Gibson to Break the Color Barrier . Huffington Post (August 30, 2007), retrieved May 9, 2013.—Gibson became the first Black player to receive an invitation to the Nationals, where she made her Forest Hills debut a few days after her 23rd birthday. Although she lost narrowly in the second round in a rain-delayed, three-set match to Louise Brough, the reigning Wimbledon champion and former US National winner, her participation received extensive national and international coverage. "No Negro player, man or woman, has ever set foot on one of these courts", wrote journalist Lester Rodney at the time. "In many ways, it is even a tougher personal Jim Crow-busting assignment than was Jackie Robinson's when he first stepped out of the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout."Rodney, L: "On the Scoreboard: Miss Gibson Plays at Forest Hills". The Daily Worker, August 24, 1950.
In 1951, Gibson won her first international title, the Caribbean Championships in Jamaica, and later that year became one of the first Black competitors at Wimbledon, where she was defeated in the third round by Beverly Baker; Bertrand Clark had been the first Black man to compete at Wimbledon in 1924.Phlegar, B: "Althea Gibson Says Net Play Tough in England", Associated Press, undated, Althea Gibson Collection, per Gray & Lamb 2004, pp. 74–75. In 1952 she was ranked seventh nationally by the USTA. In the spring of 1953 she graduated from Florida A&M and took a job teaching physical education at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. During her two years at Lincoln she became romantically involved with an Army officer whom she never named publicly, and considered enlisting in the Women's Army Corps. She decided against it when the State Department sent her on a goodwill tour of Asia in 1955 to play exhibition matches with Ham Richardson, Bob Perry, and Karol Fageros. Many Asians in the countries they visited—Burma, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, and Thailand—"felt an affinity to Althea as a woman of color and were delighted to see her as part of an official US delegation. With the United States grappling over the question of race, they turned to Althea for answers, or at least to get a first-hand perspective." Gibson, for her part, strengthened her confidence immeasurably during the six-week tour. When it was over, she remained abroad, winning 16 of 18 tournaments in Europe and Asia against many of the world's best players.
On May 27, 1956, Gibson became the first African-American athlete to win a Grand Slam tournament when she won the French Championships singles event, defeating Briton Angela Mortimer in the final. She also won the doubles title, partnered with Briton Angela Buxton.Tingay, L: "Miss Gibson Worthy Champion; Miss Buxton Shares Doubles Win". London Daily Express, May 25, 1956. Later in the season she won the Wimbledon doubles championship (again with Buxton), five tournaments in Italy including the Italian Championships in Rome, the Indian Championships in New Delhi and the Asian championship in Ceylon."Althea Gibson's Net Stock Zooms Higher", Pittsburgh Courier, June 16, 1956. She also reached the quarter-finals in singles at Wimbledon and the finals at the US Nationals, losing both to Shirley Fry.
The 1957 season was, in her own words, "Althea Gibson's year". In July, Gibson was seeded first at Wimbledon—considered at the time the "world championship of tennis"—and defeated Darlene Hard in the finals for the singles title. She was the first Black champion in the tournament's 80-year history, and the first champion to receive the trophy personally from Queen Elizabeth II."Miss Gibson Wins Wimbledon Title". The New York Times, July 7, 1957. "Shaking hands with the Queen of England," she said "was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus." She won the doubles championship as well, for the second year running.
Upon her return home Gibson became only the second Black American, after Jesse Owens, to be honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City, and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. presented her with the Bronze Medallion, the city's highest civilian award."Her Finest Hour". Newsweek, July 22, 1957. A month later she defeated Louise Brough in straight sets to win her first US National Championship."Althea's Dream is Complete: 3rd Crown Won". The Daily Worker, September 9, 1957. "Winning Wimbledon was wonderful," she wrote, "and it meant a lot to me, but there is nothing quite like winning the championship of your own country." In all, she reached the finals of eight Grand Slam events in 1957, winning the Wimbledon and US National singles titles, the Wimbledon and Australian doubles championships, and the US mixed doubles crown, and finishing second in Australian singles, US doubles, and Wimbledon mixed doubles. At season's end she broke yet another barrier as the first Black player on the US Wightman Cup team, which defeated Great Britain 6–1.Harrison, E: "Althea, Pride of One West Side, Becomes the Queen of Another". The New York Times, September 9, 1957. With Gibson winning her last 55 matches of the season, plus her first two matches in 1958, she won 57 matches in a row.