Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was born on a cotton farm in South Carolina and grew up in Harlem during the Depression. She skipped school, got into fights and was a fine paddle tennis player on the blocked-off streets outside her building. Neighbours raised money to send her to the Cosmopolitan Club, a Black tennis club, and she learned the proper game there.

Tennis in the 1940s was almost entirely white and its major tournaments were held at clubs that would not admit Black players. Gibson dominated the separate American Tennis Association circuit, but it took an open letter from the former champion Alice Marble in 1950, shaming the sport, before she was allowed to enter the US National Championships at Forest Hills.

She was a slow starter at the top level and thought about quitting to join the army. Then in 1956, at 28, she won the French Championships, the first Black player to win any Grand Slam. In 1957 and 1958 she won both Wimbledon and the US Championships, and was ranked number one in the world.

There was no money in amateur tennis, so she retired to earn a living, recorded an album and played exhibitions before basketball games. In 1964 she became the first Black woman on the professional golf tour. She spent her last years in poverty and poor health until former players raised funds to help her.