Althea Gibson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Althea Gibson

Gibson in 1956
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1927-08-29)August 29, 1927 Clarendon County, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	September 28, 2003(2003-09-28) (aged 76) East Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Retired	1958
Plays	Right-handed
Int. Tennis HoF	1971 (member page)
Singles
Career titles	56
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1957)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	F (1957)
French Open	W (1956)
Wimbledon	W (1957, 1958)
US Open	W (1957, 1958)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (1957)
French Open	W (1956)
Wimbledon	W (1956, 1957, 1958)
US Open	F (1957, 1958)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1957)
French Open	QF (1956)
Wimbledon	F (1956, 1957, 1958)
US Open	W (1957)

Althea Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was a World No. 1 American sportswoman who became the first African-American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour and the first to win a Grand Slam title in 1956. She is sometimes known as "the Jackie Robinson of tennis" for breaking the color barrier. Gibson was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Early life and education

Gibson completes a backhand groundstroke in bronze in Newark, New Jersey, near the courts (in background) on which she ran clinics for young players in her later years.

Gibson's 1956 Wimbledon doubles trophy, her first of three, and the first Wimbledon trophy won by an African American

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, so in 1930 the family moved to Harlem, as part of the Great Migration, where Althea's three sisters and brother were born. 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. 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.

Tennis career

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." At the age of 12, she was the New York City women's paddle tennis champion.

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 won her first of ten straight national ATA women's titles in 1947.

In 1946 Gibson moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to work on her tennis game with Dr. Hubert A. Eaton and enrolled at 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. Later that year she entered Florida A&M University (FAMU) on a full athletic scholarship.

In 1950, 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.

On May 27 1956, Gibson became the first African-American athlete to win a Grand Slam tournament, the French Championships singles event. She also won the doubles title, partnered with Briton Angela Buxton. Later in the season she won the Wimbledon doubles championship (again with Buxton), the Italian Championships in Rome, the Indian Championships in New Delhi and the Asian championship in Ceylon.

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. She won the doubles championship as well, for the second year. 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. A month later she defeated Louise Brough in straight sets to win her first US National Championship. 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.

In 1958, Gibson successfully defended her Wimbledon and US National singles titles, and won her third straight Wimbledon doubles championship, with a third different partner. She was the number-one-ranked woman in the world and in the United States in both 1957 and 1958, and was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years, garnering over 80% of the votes in 1958. She also became the first Black woman to appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time.

In late 1958, having won 56 national and international singles and doubles titles, Gibson retired from amateur tennis. Prior to the Open Era there was no prize money at major tournaments, and direct endorsement deals were prohibited. Players were limited to meager expense allowances, strictly regulated by the USTA. "The truth, to put it bluntly, is that my finances were in heartbreaking shape", she wrote. "Being the Queen of Tennis is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown. Nor can you send the Internal Revenue Service a throne clipped to their tax forms. The landlord and grocer and tax collector are funny that way: they like cold cash ... I reign over an empty bank account, and I'm not going to fill it by playing amateur tennis." Professional tours for women were still 15 years away, so her opportunities were largely limited to promotional events.

Golf

In 1964, at the age of 37, Gibson became the first African-American woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. Racial discrimination continued to be a problem: Many hotels still excluded people of color, and country club officials throughout the south—and some in the north—routinely refused to allow her to compete. When she did compete, she was often forced to dress for tournaments in her car because she was banned from the clubhouse. Although she was one of the LPGA's top 50 money winners for five years, and won a car at a Dinah Shore tournament, her lifetime golf earnings never exceeded $25,000.

While she broke course records during individual rounds in several tournaments, Gibson's highest ranking was 27th in 1966, and her best tournament finish was a tie for second after a three-way playoff at the 1970 Len Immke Buick Open. She retired from professional golf at the end of the 1978 season.

Post-retirement

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.

Gibson attempted a golf comeback, in 1987 at age 60, with the goal of becoming the oldest active tour player, but was unable to regain her tour card. In a second memoir, So Much to Live For, she articulated her disappointments, including unfulfilled aspirations, the paucity of endorsements and other professional opportunities, and the many obstacles of all sorts that were thrown in her path over the years.

In later years, she suffered two cerebral aneurysms and, in 1992, a stroke. A few years later, Gibson called her former doubles partner Angela Buxton and told her she 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 the latter received nearly US$1 million from around the world.

Death

On September 28, 2003, at the age of 76, Gibson died in East Orange, New Jersey due to infections. She was buried there in the Rosedale Cemetery, at Orange, New Jersey.

Personal life

Gibson was married twice. Her first marriage to William Darben took place on October 17, 1965, but the couple was divorced in 1976, eleven years later. Darben died in 1995. She was also married to Sydney Llewellyn on April 11, 1983 and was divorced from him in 1988.

Legacy

It was 15 years until another non-White woman—Evonne Goolagong, in 1971, won a Grand Slam championship; and 43 years until another African-American woman, Serena Williams, won the first of her six US Opens in 1999, not long after faxing a letter and list of questions to Gibson. Serena's sister Venus then won back-to-back titles at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2000 and 2001, repeating Gibson's accomplishment of 1957 and 1958.

A decade after Gibson's last triumph at the US Nationals, Arthur Ashe became the first African-American man to win a Grand Slam singles title, at the 1968 US Open. Billie Jean King said, "If it hadn't been for [Althea], it wouldn't have been so easy for Arthur, or the ones who followed."

In 1980 Gibson became one of the first six inductees into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, placing her on par with such pioneers as Amelia Earhart, Wilma Rudolph, Gertrude Ederle, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and Patty Berg. Other inductions included the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Black Athletes Hall of Fame, the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey, the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame, and the National Women's Hall of Fame. She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1988.

In 1991 Gibson became the first woman to receive the Theodore Roosevelt Award, the highest honor from the National Collegiate Athletic Association; she was cited for "symbolizing the best qualities of competitive excellence and good sportsmanship, and for her significant contributions to expanding opportunities for women and minorities through sports." Sports Illustrated for Women named her to its list of the "100 Greatest Female Athletes".

On opening night of the 2007 US Open, the 50th anniversary of her first victory at its predecessor, the US National Championships, Gibson was inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.

Gibson's five Wimbledon trophies are displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The Althea Gibson Cup seniors tournament is held annually in Croatia, under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The Althea Gibson Foundation identifies and supports gifted golf and tennis players who live in urban environments. In 2005 Gibson's friend Bill Cosby endowed the Althea Gibson Scholarship at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.

In September 2009, Wilmington, North Carolina, named its new community tennis court facility the Althea Gibson Tennis Complex at Empie Park. Other tennis facilities named in her honor include those at Manning High School (near her birthplace in Silver, South Carolina), the Family Circle Tennis Center in Charleston, South Carolina. and Florida A&M University.

In 2012 a bronze statue, created by sculptor Thomas Jay Warren, was dedicated at Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey near the courts named in her honor where she ran clinics for young players in her later years.

In August 2013, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp honoring Gibson, the 36th in its Black Heritage series. A documentary titled Althea, produced for the American Masters Series on PBS, premiered in September 2015.

In November 2017, the Council of Paris inaugurated the Gymnase Althea Gibson, a public multisport gymnasium in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.

In 2018, the USTA unanimously voted to erect a statue honoring Gibson at Flushing Meadows, site of the US Open. The statue, created by sculptor Eric Goulder and unveiled in 2019, is only the second Flushing Meadows monument erected in honor of a champion.

Gibson will be honored on a U.S. quarter in 2025 as part of the final year of the American Women quarters program.

Grand Slam finals

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

Runner-up finishes (2)

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

Women's and mixed doubles (11)

Wins (6)

Year	Championship	Event	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1956	French Championships	Women's doubles	Angela Buxton	Darlene Hard Dorothy Head Node	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 Bloss	6–3, 7–5

Runner-ups (5)

Year	Championship	Event	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in 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

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

Related pages

• Venus Williams
• Arthur Ashe

See also

In Spanish: Althea Gibson para niños