TennisWorthy: Althea Gibson
Courage in Action:
Althea Gibson Shatters The Race Barrier
By Joel Drucker, ITHF Historian-At-Large
It was Saturday night on July 6, 1957. This was the evening of the Wimbledon Ball, a grand celebration of The Championships. As was the tradition, the men’s singles winner, in this case Australian Lew Hoad, danced with the ladies’ champion. But in this instance, tradition twined with revolution: the emergence of the first African-American to ever win a Grand Slam title. Her name, Althea Gibson.
Earlier that day, on an afternoon when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees, Gibson had taken a brisk 50 minutes to beat her compatriot, Darlene Hard, 6-1, 6-2. The 5’ 11” Gibson’s assets: exceptional mobility, a powerful serve and the ability to smother opponents with superb volleys.
This happened to be the first of only four times in her 64-year-reign that Queen Elizabeth II came to Wimbledon. “Shaking hands with the queen of England,” Gibson later said, “was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus.”
So now, as the breakthrough day of tradition and progress joined arms, it was fitting that Gibson would continue to innovate. Grabbing the Champion’s Ball bandleader’s microphone, she began to sing. The tune was “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” marked by such lyrics as “Rome wasn't built in a day, kid/You have to pay, kid, for what you get.”
Gibson was 29 years old that night. She knew those lyrics all too well, her journey to the top one of persistence and courage.
Althea Gibson was born on August 25, 1927 in Silver, South Carolina. Her parents were sharecroppers. Those were the days of Jim Crow, of a sharp gap between the races that drastically curtailed opportunities for African-Americans, even more so in Gibson’s native south. When Gibson was three, her family moved north, eventually settling in Harlem, New York.
But while it was one thing for Gibson to be denied opportunity by racial restrictions, an even more oppressive factor was her father’s harsh discipline. Eager to escape his wrath, Gibson roamed New York, from the subways to the streets to the parks. By age 12, she became New York City’s women’s paddle tennis champion. Two years later, she entered – and won – her first tennis tournament, the American Tennis Association (ATA) New York State Championship.
The ATA was the African-American equivalent of American tennis’ ruling body, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). With African-Americans denied entry into most USLTA events, the ATA had created a wide-ranging circuit. There also were a number of ATA patrons who aided the growth of young players. In 1944, the year Gibson turned 17, she moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to live with Dr. Hubert Eaton. Over the course of the next few summers, she trained in Lynchburg, Virginia under the eyes of Dr. Robert Johnson (who also later housed and helped instruct Arthur Ashe).
By the late ‘40s, Gibson had become a formidable tennis player, dominating the ATA. But it was virtually impossible to compete at other events. Said former New York City mayor and longtime tennis aficionado David Dinkins, “It was American apartheid, like South Africa. But that's the way we were. Most tennis was played at country clubs and places that didn't admit people of color, so it was tough for her."
A form of help came in 1950, when former world number one Alice Marble penned a letter in the prominent magazine, American Lawn Tennis, demanding that Gibson be given a chance. Wrote Marble, “If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen it’s time we acted a little more like gentlepeople and less like sanctimonious hypocrites.”
Later that summer, Gibson was allowed to enter the prestigious U.S. National Championships (what’s now the US Open). In the second round, she strongly tested reigning Wimbledon champion Louise Brough, losing that match, 9-7 in the third set.
Gibson had proven herself worthy. But still, indeed, as the song noted, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Through her 20s – prime years for most athletes -- Gibson practiced and sharpened her skills, all the while integrating a lily-white sport. In 1956, she won the Wimbledon doubles with her good friend, Angela Buxton. A year later, the pinnacle, Gibson taking the title without the loss of a set. Fitting indeed were the words Gibson yelled shortly after that triumph: “At last! At last!”
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Joel Drucker is an historian-at-large for the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Author of such books as “Jimmy Connors Saved My Life,” Drucker also writes extensively for Tennis Channel and many others.
