Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson in 1956.

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."

Early life

Gibson was born to sharecropping parents in Silver, South Carolina and was raised in Harlem, New York City. She and her family were on welfare. Gibson had difficulty in school and was often truant. She ran away from home quite frequently. Despite her troubles as a youth, she showed promise as an athlete, and she excelled in horsemanship and also competed in golf, basketball, and paddle tennis. Her talent for and love of paddle tennis led her to win tournaments sponsored by the Police Athletic League and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Musician Buddy Walker noticed her playing table tennis and introduced her to tennis at the Harlem River Tennis Courts. Dr. Walter Johnson, a Lynchburg, Virginia physician who was active in the black tennis community, helped with her training.

Tennis career

With the assistance of a sponsor, Gibson moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1946 to continue her tennis training, and in 1947 at the age of 20, she won the first of ten consecutive national championships run by the American Tennis Association, the then-governing body for black tournaments. Limited to these tournaments due to racial segregation, Gibson was not able to transcend the color barrier until age 23, when, in 1950, fellow player Alice Marble wrote an editorial for the July 1, 1950, edition of American Lawn Tennis Magazine. Marble said, "Miss Gibson is over a very cunningly wrought barrel, and I can only hope to loosen a few of its staves with one lone opinion. If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it's also time we acted a little more like gentlepeople and less like sanctimonious hypocrites....If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of women players, it's only fair that they should meet that challenge on the courts." Marble said that if Gibson were not given the opportunity to compete, "then there is an uneradicable mark against a game to which I have devoted most of my life, and I would be bitterly ashamed."^[1] Gibson was subsequently given the opportunity to participate in the 1950 U.S. Championships.

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.

Now unimpeded by the color barrier, Gibson was able to compete against the world's best players. She won the 1955 Italian Championships, and the following year, she won her first Grand Slam titles, capturing the French Championships in singles and in doubles with her partner, Jewish Englishwoman Angela Buxton. Buxton had run into discrimination from other players and the tennis establishment along the same lines as those experienced by Gibson, so the two joined forces and achieved great success. Buxton was the first Jewish champion at Wimbledon, and Gibson was the first champion of African descent. An English newspaper reported their victory at Wimbledon under the headline "Minorities Win."

She followed up by becoming the first black person to win a title at Wimbledon, again capturing the doubles title with Buxton. At the U.S. Championships that year, she reached the singles final where she lost to Shirley Fry Irvin.

In 1957, Gibson lost in the singles final of the Australian Championships, again to Irvin. The two women, however, teamed to capture the doubles title, as Buxton had retired prematurely at the age of 22 due to a serious hand injury.

At Wimbledon, Gibson won her first of two consecutive 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 U.S. Championships. For her accomplishments 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 successfully defending her Wimbledon singles title and winning her third consecutive Wimbledon women's doubles title, Gibson again won the singles title at the U.S. Championships. She was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year. That year, Gibson retired from amateur tennis.

Retirement and later life

Before the open era began, there was no prize money, other than an expense allowance, and no endorsement deals. To begin earning prize money, tennis players had to give up their amateur status. As there was no professional 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 became the first African-American woman to play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. 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 10 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.

Tennis players made no money in the ‘50s, and Gibson’s finances worsened over the years. In 1992, she suffered a stroke. A few years later, Gibson called Buxton and told her she was on the brink of suicide. Gibson was living on welfare, and unable to pay for rent or medication. Buxton arranged for a letter to appear in a tennis magazine. Buxton told Gibson nothing about the letter, but Gibson figured it out when her mailbox started to bulge with envelopes full of checks from around the world. Eventually nearly $1 million came in.[1]

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

Grand Slam finals

Singles (7)

Wins (5)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1956	French Championships	Angela Mortimer Barrett	6-0, 12-10
1957	Wimbledon	Darlene Hard	6-3, 6-2
1957	U.S. Championships	Louise Brough Clapp	6-3, 6-2
1958	Wimbledon (2)	Angela Mortimer Barrett	8-6, 6-2
1958	U.S. Championships (2)	Darlene Hard	3-6, 6-1, 6-2

Runners-up (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1957	Australian Championships	Shirley Fry Irvin	6-3, 6-4
1956	U.S. Championships	Shirley Fry Irvin	6-3, 6-4

Doubles (11)

Wins (6)

Year	Championship	Event	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score/Final
1956	French Championships	Women's doubles	Angela Buxton	Darlene Hard Dorothy Head Knode	6-8, 8-6, 6-1
1956	Wimbledon	Women's doubles	Angela Buxton	Fay Muller Daphne Seeney	6-1, 8-6
1957	Australian Championships	Women's doubles	Shirley Fry Irvin	Mary Bevis Hawton Fay Muller	6-2, 6-1
1957	Wimbledon (2)	Women's doubles	Darlene Hard	Mary Bevis Hawton Thelma Coyne Long	6-1, 6-2
1957	U.S. Championships	Mixed doubles	Kurt Nielsen	Darlene Hard Bob Howe	6-3, 9-7
1958	Wimbledon (3)	Women's doubles	Maria Bueno	Margaret Osborne duPont Margaret Varner	6-3, 7-5

Runners-up (5)

Year	Championship	Event	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score/Final
1956	Wimbledon	Mixed doubles	Gardnar Mulloy	Shirley Fry Irvin Vic Seixas	2-6, 6-2, 7-5
1957	Wimbledon	Mixed doubles	Neil Fraser	Darlene Hard Mervyn Rose	6-4, 7-5
1957	U.S. Championships	Women's doubles	Darlene Hard	Louise Brough Clapp Margaret Osborne duPont	6-2, 7-5
1958	Wimbledon	Mixed doubles	Kurt Nielsen	Lorraine Coghlan Green Bob Howe	6-3, 13-11
1958	U.S. Championships	Women's doubles	Maria Bueno	Darlene Hard Jeanne Arth	2-6, 6-3, 6-4

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

External links

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

↑ Billie Jean King with Cynthia Starr (1988). We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women's Tennis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 76. ISBN 0-07-034625-9.

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[1] Billie Jean King with Cynthia Starr (1988). We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women's Tennis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 76. ISBN 0-07-034625-9.

[1]

Althea Gibson

Contents

Early life

Tennis career

Retirement and later life