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education.com. (2023). Informational Reading Comprehension: Biography of Althea Gibson. Education.com. https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/informational-reading-comprehension-biography-of-althea-gibson/

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Despite her success, Gibson was still unable to compete in the U.S. National Championships, the top-tier tennis competition now known as the U.S. Open. Policies created by the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) required athletes to earn points by winning competitions at clubs in order to gain entry to the tournament. However, Althea Gibson had a particularly dicult time earning these points, as most clubs prohibited Black athletes from competing.

As Gibson became a rising star in the ATA, she garnered the attention of two African American doctors prominent in the African American tennis community. Dr. Robert Walter Johnson and Dr. Hubert Eaton wanted to integrate the USLTA and believed Althea could become the kind of player who could break the existing racial barriers. The two men oered to mentor Gibson and help her train while she finished school. Althea agreed, and in 1944, she moved in with Dr. Eaton and his family in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she attended high school. During the summers, she lived with Dr. Johnson and his family in Lynchburg, Virginia, and toured the U.S. to play in tennis competitions.

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When young Althea started playing paddle tennis through the local Police Athletic League, she quickly made a name for herself. At age 12, she became New York City's women’s paddle tennis champion. A local bandleader noticed Althea’s talent, and with the help of some neighbors, he raised enough money to enroll her in tennis lessons at Harlem's Cosmopolitan Tennis Club. Althea excelled at the sport, and in 1941, she won her first American Tennis Association (ATA) state tournament. The ATA was established in 1916 to provide opportunities for Black athletes interested in tennis. Due to segregation in sports, the ATA was Althea Gibson’s only option for playing competitive tennis. She picked up her first ATA national championship title in 1944.

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Althea Gibson was born in 1927 to sharecroppers on a cotton farm. A life of segregation and extreme economic challenges prompted her family to relocate from South Carolina to Harlem, a section of New York City, when Althea was three. But even in their new home, the Gibsons’ struggles continued—the 1930s were dicult years as the Great Depression took a toll on families all across the country. During this time, young Althea Gibson found solace in sports. Her love of sports was the spark that ignited a career filled with firsts as she paved the way for future generations of Black athletes.

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When you think of the greatest tennis players of all time, Venus and Serena Williams might come to mind. But the Williams sisters began their professional careers about 50 years after another female tennis player took the tennis world by storm. Althea Gibson, the first African American athlete to compete at the highest levels of national and international tennis, paved the way for other African American athletes to achieve greatness in sports.