Part of the 3rd Grade East She Persisted Series

Introduction

“Whish!”A tennis ball whizzed through the air and over the net. The fans were cheering. People were watching the first African American woman to ever play at Wimbledon, a famous tennis competition. Her name was Althea Gibson. Read on if you are curious to learn more about this star tennis player.

Early Years

Althea Gibson was born on August 25th 1927 on a small cotton farm in South Carolina. She had three younger sisters and a brother. Althea hardly went to school, instead she would go around supermarkets stealing sweet potatoes or she would play hookie all day in the movie theater.

Althea loved ball sports. One day when she was fourteen she was playing paddle tennis. A grown-up friend named Buddy Walker saw how talented she was and thought she might be good at real tennis. He bought her a used tennis racket and sure enough Althea was a natural.

In the 1940s tennis was a sport for wealthy white people. Luckily when Althea was older she went to live with a friend in North Carolina where she could finish high school and play on his private tennis courts.

Life as an Adult

Althea’s practice and dedication paid off. When she was in college, she was offered a scholarship to play tennis. There she began competing in tournaments against white players. In 1950 she qualified to play in the U.S. national tennis championships at Forest Hills, the most important USLTA (U.S. Lawn Tennis Association) tennis tournament in the U.S. Althea was the first African American woman or man allowed to play there.

Althea had a successful career winning championship games and even multiple Grand Slam tournaments. Later when she retired she became a professional golfer as well as acted in the movie The Horse Soldiers.

Accomplishments

In 1955 the U.S. government asked Althea to become a Goodwill Ambassador for a traveling tennis team. It was the best thing that could have happened in her career. It allowed her to tour Southwest Asia, see sights, as well as improve her game.

In 1956 on her way back to the US she stopped in Paris (France) to win the French championships, the third most important tennis tournament in the world. There she became the first African–American ever to win a major tennis tournament. Althea had gone further then any African-American had in history. Then Althea wanted to go further. She wanted to be the best tennis player in the world. She had the physical skill, although something was holding her back. She continued to play traveling to Australia and Asia for a series of tournaments. She wasn’t winning the way she wanted to.

On her way back to the US she decided it was time for her to win at Wimbledon and Forest Hills. That year Althea arrived at Wimbledon believing that this was her time to become number one. Although she was nervous she was confident. All of her hard work finally came together as she won match after match before making it to the final round. On that day she played Darlene Hard, who had beaten her before, but that didn’t keep Althea down. She strode onto Centre Court as Queen Elizabeth watched from her royal box. Althea had volleyed, and smashed her way to the championship. Althea Gibson had won Wimbledon!

Later she stood on a red carpet on Center Court and received a trophy from Queen Elizabeth herself. A few weeks later Althea went on to win at Forest Hills. she was the number-one ranked woman in the world, and if anybody had doubts about her title she put them to rest when she won the same tournaments the next year.

Conclusion

Althea Gibson persisted by being the first African American to play in all of the white tennis tournaments, as well as dealing with lots and lots of insults from the crowd. She allowed African American players to play is USLTA tournaments. Althea was also an inspiration to many tennis players, including Venus and Serena Williams.

“Being champion is all good, but you can‘t eat a crown.” –Althea Gibson