Althea Gibson

From New World Encyclopedia
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 poor 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 and affinity for paddle tennis led her to win tournaments sponsored by the Police Athletic League and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. She was first introduced to tennis at the Harlem River Tennis Courts by musician Buddy Walker, who noticed her playing table tennis. Dr. Walter Johnson, a Lynchburg, Virginia physician who was active in the black tennis community, helped with her training.

Tennis career

Gibson received sponsorship and moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1946 to continue her tennis training. The following year, 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 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.

Having been given opportunities for integrated tournament play, Gibson was able to compete against the world's best players. In 1955, she won Italian Championships, and in 1956, 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, and found an empathetic ally in Gibson. The two noteworthy women formed a successful doubles tandem. An English newspaper reported their victory in 1956 at Wimbledon under the headline "Minorities Win." That year at Wimbledon, 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." Their famous partnership would bring them two Grand Slam titles before Buxton was forced to retire at age 22 due to a serious hand injury.

In 1957, Gibson became the first black person to win the singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Darlene Hard in the final. She also defended her doubles title, this time partnering with Hard. Following the tournament, when she returned to the United States, Gibson was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City and an official welcome at New York City Hall. She went on to win the U.S. Championships that summer. 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. It was also the year she retired from amateur tennis, as she was unable to earn a living as an amateur, despite her fame.

Retirement and later life

Before the open era of tennis began in 1968, players competed under amateur status, and did not receive endorsement deals or any prize money, other than an expense allowance. After her retirement, Gibson earned little from tennis, aside from a few exhibition tours, because at that time there was no professional tennis tour for women.

In 1958, Gibson wrote her autobiography called I Always Wanted To Be Somebody. The following year, she recorded an album, Althea Gibson Sings, and appeared in the motion picture The Horse Soldiers. She even staged an attempt at a professional golfer, and in 1964, she became the first African-American woman to play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Already in her late thirties, however, she did not enjoy much success 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, a position she would hold for ten years. Later, she served in other public service roles, including a position with the governor's council on physical fitness.

In later years, Gibson suffered two cerebral aneurysms and a stroke in 1992. A few years later, she found herself still in poor health and living on welfare, unable to pay for rent or medication. She called her former doubles partner and lifelong friend Angela Buxton and told her she was on the brink of suicide. Buxton secretly arranged for a letter to appear in a tennis magazine to urge the world to help Gibson. Nearly $1 million was collected for Gibson from letters from around the world.[1]

Gibson died on September 28, 2003, in East Orange, New Jersey at the age of 76, due to respiratory failure. She was interred there at the Rosedale Cemetery in Orange, New Jersey.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (7)

Wins (5)

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

Runners-up (2)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1957 Australian Championships Flag of United States Shirley Fry Irvin 6-3, 6-4
1956 U.S. Championships Flag of United States 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 Flag of United Kingdom Angela Buxton Flag of United States Darlene Hard
Flag of United States Dorothy Head Knode
6-8, 8-6, 6-1
1956 Wimbledon Women's doubles Flag of United Kingdom Angela Buxton Flag of United Kingdom Fay Muller
Flag of United Kingdom Daphne Seeney
6-1, 8-6
1957 Australian Championships Women's doubles Flag of United States Shirley Fry Irvin Flag of AustraliaMary Bevis Hawton
Flag of United KingdomFay Muller
6-2, 6-1
1957 Wimbledon (2) Women's doubles Flag of United States Darlene Hard Flag of Australia Mary Bevis Hawton
Flag of Australia Thelma Coyne Long
6-1, 6-2
1957 U.S. Championships Mixed doubles Flag of Denmark Kurt Nielsen Flag of United States Darlene Hard
Flag of Australia Bob Howe
6-3, 9-7
1958 Wimbledon (3) Women's doubles Flag of Brazil Maria Bueno Flag of United States Margaret Osborne duPont
Flag of United States Margaret Varner
6-3, 7-5

Runners-up (5)

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

  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. 

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.