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Gray, Frances Clayton, and Yanick Rice Lamb. Born to Win: The Authorized Biography of Althea Gibson. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

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Althea Gibson was born on August 25, 1927 to Annie Bell and Daniel "Dush" Gibson. Her parents were cotton farmers who lived in Silver, the small town.

Quote #1: "Word spread all over Silver about "Dush" and Annie Bell's firstborn- "a big fat one" at eight pounds and long, too" (3).

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Althea was born in 1927, near the Great Depression. Daniel Gibson was struggling with providing for his growing family.

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https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American/African-American-life-during-the-Great-Depression-and-the-New-Deal

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The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the already bleak economic situation of African Americans. They were the first to be laid off from their jobs, and they suffered from an unemployment rate two to three times that of whites. In early public assistance programs African Americans often received substantially less aid than whites, and some charitable organizations even excluded Blacks from their soup kitchens.

This intensified economic plight sparked major political developments among African Americans. Beginning in 1929, the St. Louis Urban League launched a national "jobs for Negroes" movement by boycotting chain stores that had mostly Black customers but hired only white employees. Efforts to unify African American organizations and youth groups later led to the founding of the National Negro Congress in 1936 and the Southern Negro Youth Congress in 1937.

Virtually ignored by the Republican administrations of the 1920s, Black voters drifted to the Democratic Party, especially in the Northern cities. In the presidential election of 1928 African Americans voted in large numbers for the Democrats for the first time. In 1930 Republican Pres. Herbert Hoover nominated John J. Parker, a man of pronounced anti-Black views, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP successfully opposed the nomination. In the 1932 presidential race African Americans overwhelmingly supported the successful Democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Roosevelt administration's accessibility to African American leaders and the New Deal reforms strengthened Black support for the Democratic Party. A number of African American leaders, members of a so-called "Black cabinet," were advisers to Roosevelt. Among them were the educator Mary McLeod Bethune, who served as the National Youth Administration's director of Negro affairs; William H. Hastie, who in 1937 became the first Black federal judge; Eugene K. Jones, executive secretary of the National Urban League; Robert Vann, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier; and the economist Robert C. Weaver.

African Americans benefited greatly from New Deal programs, though discrimination by local administrators was common. Low-cost public housing was made available to Black families. The National Youth Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps enabled African American youths to continue their education. The Works Progress Administration gave jobs to many African Americans, and its Federal Writers Project supported the work of many Black authors, among them Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, Waters Turpin, and Melvin B. Tolson.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), established in the mid-1930s, organized large numbers of Black workers into labour unions for the first time. By 1940 there were more than 200,000 African Americans in the CIO, many of them officers of union locals.

The industrial boom that began with the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939 ended the Depression. However, unemployed whites were generally the first to be given jobs. Discrimination against African Americans in hiring impelled A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to threaten a mass protest march on Washington. To forestall the march, scheduled for June 25, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 banning "discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government" and establishing a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to investigate violations. Although discrimination remained widespread, during the war African Americans secured more jobs at better wages in a greater range of occupations than ever before.

In World War II as in World War I, there was a mass migration of Blacks from the rural South; collectively, these population shifts were known as the Great Migration. Some 1.5 million African Americans left the South during the 1940s, mainly for the industrial cities of the North. Once again, serious housing shortages and job competition led to increased tension between Blacks and whites. Race riots broke out; the worst occurred in Detroit in June 1943.

During the war, which the United States had entered in December 1941, a large proportion of African American soldiers overseas were in service units, and combat troops remained segregated. In the course of the war, however, the army introduced integrated officer training, and Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., became its first African American brigadier general. In 1949, four years after the end of World War II, the armed services finally adopted a policy of full integration. During the Korean War of the early 1950s, Blacks for the first time fought side by side with whites in fully integrated units.

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African Americans - Great Depression, New Deal, Struggles

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African Americans - Great Depression, New Deal, Struggles: The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the already bleak economic situation of African Americans. They were the first to be laid off from their jobs, and they suffered from an unemployment rate two to three times that of whites.

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After struggling in South Carolina, the Gibsons move to Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City.

Quote #2: "...the Harlem that the Gibsons and other transplants encountered lived up to its reputation for good times and what they considered to be good jobs" (13).

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https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society/politics-policy-people/sociology/brief-history-harlem

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Explore the history of the New York neighbourhood of Harlem to understand why investment can cause as many problems as lack of investment and how this has considerable impacts on the African...

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Althea moves to Philadelphia, where she lives with her Aunt Daisy. Althea expressed her spirit and spunk here, something that symbolizes her childhood. Althea was determined to do what she wanted.

Quote #3: "And then there were the fights, where Althea was swinging either fists or branches at boys, chasing her around he neighborhood" (15).

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Growing up Althea knew exactly how to defend herself. She rarely lost a fight, no matter who it was she was fighting. Dush believed she could become a boxer and gain popularity.

Quote #4: "'And I knew right away that Al would make a world's champion'" (21).

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In 1941, Althea graduated Junior High and went on to attend Yorkville Trade School. This new school made her want to skip even more, and she continued to stay out on the streets playing games. Sometimes even leaving for weeks at a time, getting better at ball games

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Buddy Walker, a saxophonist who had seen Althea play at PAL, saw potential. Walker went on to invite her to play tennis with him and his tennis friends, and when she beat them all they were amazed. 12 year old Althea was playing at Harlem River Tennis Courts and making great progress before she even knew it.

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Fred Johnson, known as one the best coaches in the city, was curious about Althea as he heard more about her. He himself loved tennis, which he started playing after losing his left arm. He was also a part of the American Tennis Association. Johnson was thoroughly impressed with Althea.

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https://www.yourata.org/
The ATA, founded to increase the amount of black athletes.

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National Championships | American Tennis Association | United States

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Membership has its benefits! the ATA is America's oldest African American Tennis Organization. We are the leading diverse adult tennis organization that harnesses the power of tennis to promote the education, health and wellness of underserved youth to create the next generation of tennis heroes and community leaders.

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The people Althea played tennis with at the Cosmopolitan were strict and behaved. As Al became more serious she discovered how she could be fierce and polite. She learned more and soon won the girls' singles in her first tournament in 1941.

Quote #5: "'I began to understand that you could walk out on the court like a lade, all dressed up in white, be polite to everybody and still play like a tiger'" (31).

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After losing to Roumania Peters at the 1946 national singles, Althea was crushed. A man came up to her asking if she wanted to play Forest Hills, which she couldn't ever imagine. The man was Dr. R. Walter Johnson, and he wanted to turn Althea's tennis game around. He started by providing her an education, and she came to his home in the south during the first week of September where she attended Williston Industrial High School.

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Rosemary Darben and Althea were doubles partners, and best friends. They played hard but in good fun, and looked very similar. However, their personalities were extremely different from each other, as Althea was much more straightforward.

Quote #6: "We were both tall. I was five feet ten; she five feet eleven...we had a lot of fun together" (41).

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https://nwto.us/blog/a-history-of-segregation-in-us-tennis

Many people believed Althea would make history, but she had to break the color barrier first.

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Many tennis players don't know the history of struggles that Black players encountered to participate in USTA (originally USLTA) tournaments. While Blacks played college tennis at historically Black colleges like Howard and Tuskegee Universities from the 1890's, they were denied admission to many private clubs whose membership was restricted to Whites. They joined tennis clubs that operated for Blacks but were denied opportunities to compete in US tournaments, especially after the USLTA barred Blacks from participating. The American Tennis Association (ATA) was formed in 1916 to provide blacks with an alternative tournament circuit. The tournaments were held at historically Black college campuses in the south where players could be housed since most hotels refused to accommodate Blacks.

The segregation system began to fail in 1938 when Don Budge entered an ATA tournament and played doubles with Dr. Reginald Weir, a Black man. The USLTA's discriminatory practices finally ended after support from within the association by Alice Marble and Edward Niles and from outside by the ATA. Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, Dr. Hubert Eaton and Bertram Baker were among the ATA officials who were the key force behind negotiations that in 1950 led to the United States Lawn Tennis Association's acceptance of Althea Gibson's application to become the first Black to ever compete in the U.S. National Championship at Forest Hills. Between 1956 and 1958, Althea Gibson was the world's dominant woman player. She won on clay at the French Open in 1956, as well as the All-England Lawn Tennis Women's Singles championship in 1957 and 1958 and the U.S. Open in 1957 and 1958. She was also a finalist in the 1957 Australian Open.

ATA created a junior development program to train talented players including Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison, Leslie Allen, Lori McNeil, Chandra Rubin, Katrina Adams, and Mali Vai Washington. It continues today to develop young talent and provide them with opportunities to travel and compete in tournaments. More about ATA history

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A History of Segregation in US Tennis - NWTO

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Many tennis players don't know the history of struggles that Black players encountered to participate in USTA (originally USLTA) tournaments. While Blacks played college tennis at historically Black colleges like Howard and Tuskegee Universities from the 1890's, they were denied admission to many private clubs whose membership was restricted to Whites.

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Entry #12 - USLTA's Eastern Indoor Tournament 

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Entry #12 - USLTA's Eastern Indoor Tournament 

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During the winter of 1949, Althea was finally invited to compete! Her first all-white tournament was being held by her Harlem apartment. She was then asked to play in the National Indoor Championships even after losing. The girls were friendly and Althea was happy. She soon graduated and was attending FAMU on a basketball scholarship, as there were no tennis ones.

Quote #7: "'I had been invited to play with the white girls in one of the important tournaments, and I felt good about it. The world didn't have to reform overnight; I was willing to give it a few days" (46).

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Although Gibson had proven herself time and time again, she was yet to be invited to play at Forest Hills. People started noticing this, such as Alice Marble. Marble herself was a tennis champion, and after seeing the discrimination Gibson was facing wrote a lengthy letter. This letter did its magic, Gibson was reciving inviations and acceptances.

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https://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/story/_/id/14999091/letter-legacy-alice-marble-venus-williams

Alice Marble's impact and connection.

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Racism and sexism shackle even the strongest athletes. These structural antagonisms cannot be out-run, out-served, or out-jumped by any single person: these fetters can only be dismantled by brave voices rising together. The history of women's tennis offers us a string of athletes who have done just that.

In 1947, Althea Gibson won the first of 10 consecutive championships of the American Tennis Association. The young black woman from Harlem buzzed with natural quickness and agility. Despite her mounting victories, Gibson was not invited to play in the U.S. Opens: athletes could only gain entry to the national championships by accumulating points from authorized tournaments at white-only clubs.

The institutional racism of women's tennis irritated one of its greats, four-time U.S. Open champion Alice Marble. Impatient that the sport prioritized racism over talent, Marble published a letter in the July 1950 American Lawn Tennis Magazine. "We can accept the evasions," she wrote, "or we can face the issue squarely and honestly. It so happens that I tan very easily in the summer, but I doubt that anyone ever questioned my right to play in the Nationals because of it."

Marble's letter was the most powerful serve of her career. Her words, carefully spun and sharply delivered, hit women's tennis in its weakest point: its insidious racism. Shortly after the publication of Marble's message, Gibson was admitted to the U.S. Open, winning it within a few years.

Notably, Marble did not choose to share her convictions through a press conference, by phoning high-ranking connections, or by shrugging in despair: she wrote about them. Unlike silence or chatter, writing creates a liminal audience; readers can amble through Marble's thoughts through the jungle of their own. For reader and author, writing helps us not only see what we are, but imagine what we can become. Writing lays groundwork for making the impossible possible.

Marble's note provoked not only a redefinition of tennis, but also a reckoning with its reality. She did not feign color-blindness; she clearly saw racism and its impact on tennis. Her writing urged the predominantly white tennis elites to not only see their limiting beliefs, but to move beyond them. Allowing Gibson to play in the U.S. Open was one important step on a long road toward more equitable tennis. Without its desegregation, tennis would have been denied its best players: Venus and Serena Williams.

Carrying on Marble's legacy, more than 60 years later, Venus Williams picked up a pen to advocate for more equitable conditions of women's tennis. Like Marble, Williams drew attention to institutional inequities, but this time for gender equity in prize money. Great athletes don't only challenge physical limits; they expand the boundaries of our minds.

In a 2006 op-ed in The London Times, Williams called for equal prize money for men and women's Wimbledon championship. She wrote, "I'm disappointed ... the home of tennis is sending a message to women across the world that we are inferior." Six months later, Wimbledon announced the same prize money for men and women.

Marble, a white woman, pressed for greater racial justice in tennis; Williams, a black woman, wrote on behalf of gender pay equity. Together, their words formed a path beyond the limits of racism and sexism. While their triumphs are individual, their effects accumulate. Therefore, great athletes don't simply display their own athletic genius, they provide athletic leadership for others.

Williams' and Marble's writing extended their prowess beyond the tennis courts, noting the racist and sexist practices that structure the game to begin with. Their writing both exposed injustices in tennis and created the path toward alternatives. Yet, we do not need to be professional athletes to break the shackles of racism and sexism. As Marble and Williams show us, we need only to speak up for one another. A fierce and well-timed letter can do a lot. A legacy of champion women tennis players prove it.
Eleni Schirmer is a doctoral student at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Educational Policy Studies and Curriculum and Instruction, studying social movements and education. Her writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Progressive, LaborNotes and Education Review.

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Racism and sexism shackle even the strongest athletes. These structural antagonisms cannot be out-run, out-served, or out-jumped by any single person: these fetters can only be dismantled by brave voices rising together. The history of women's tennis offers us a string of athletes who have done just that.

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Finally, Althea was accepted to play at the national championships of the USLTA. Along with fifty-two other women, she was ecstatic. The date was set for August 28th and history was being made.

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On November 10, 1951, Bethune-Cookman College named that day Althea Gibson day. Her tennis matches had a major impact on the people around her. She was truly having a Jackie Robinson moment.

Quote #8: "When Althea arrived in Dayton Beach, she was the star of a parade from Florida East Coast Railroad Station to the campus where she had lunch at Faith Hall" (75).

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Althea was ranked ninth in the United States based on her match of 1951 in Forest Hill. She was now playing against Doris Hart, and had the game in her hands. However, she lost to Hart in the end. Althea held herself to high standards, and did not give herself a moment of pity.

Quote #9: "'I have no excuse,'... 'I should have beaten her'" (76).

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While Althea was staying with Rosemary and her family, she was learning more about how to present herself to the media. During her stay, her and Will, who was Rosemary's brother, had grown to like each other. They would soon go on to marry in the future.

Quote #10: "'I think he made Althea feel good about ehrself, and he filled her in on a lot of facts, because he read a lot'" (79).

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Finally, at the French Open in 1957, Althea became the first black women to win a Grand Slam there. Everyone knew she had the potential all along, it was the confindence she was lacking. She was booming with happiness.

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On July 6, 1957, Althea finally won a Wimbledon singles title. Crying in triumph, she took hold of the twenty-eight-inch gold slaver from Queen Elizabeth II. This was a huge milestone and inspiration for women athletes.

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Althea Gibson was a talented woman and an inspiration to many. She sang and produced an album in 1958, won barrier-breaking titles in (for example, Forest Hills), got an education while learning to play against unfair biases, joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association, acted, wrote a book, and did much more throughout her life. She continued to pass her knowledge to younger audiences, teaching tennis clinics and creating great players. She was a figure of excellence and perseverance and was truly born to win.