Tennis icon Althea Gibson was the first African American to win a Grand Slam title, in 1956. She was born in Silver, South Carolina on Aug. 25, 1927, but moved with her parents to New York when she was very young. According to her New York Times obituary, Gibson grew up on West 143rd St., between Lenox and Seventh Avenue; this block was a “play street” and featured a paddle tennis court right in front of her family’s apartment.
Gibson picked up paddle tennis when she was 9, became New York City’s Women’s Paddle Tennis Champion at 12 and then began to transition to tennis at age 13 with a pair of secondhand rackets. She soon showed potential for the sport, winning the first tournament she entered only a year after first picking up a racket. In 1950, Gibson made history as the first African American player invited to the National Grass Court Championship at Forest Hills (now known as the U.S. Open).
Early Achievements
As mentioned earlier, she again made history in 1956 as the first African American to win a Grand Slam title, when she captured the French Open title. Gibson was also the first African American woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated (Sept. 2, 1957) and the second African American woman to appear on the cover of Time (Aug. 26, 1957), a dual feat she accomplished in the span of a week.
Amazingly, tennis wasn’t the only sport in which Gibson broke barriers. In 1964, at 37-years-old, she became the first African American woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
Gibson started directing women’s sports and recreation for the Essex County Parks Commission in the early 1970s and was later named New Jersey’s Commissioner of Athletics, the first woman in the country to hold such a role. In 1977, she was asked to run for a State Senate seat and, to her own surprise, agreed. “I have always wanted to do things that were beneficial to the public. But politics, I guess I was mildly surprised at my decision,” Gibson said to The Washington Post in 1977. “I thought about what I had read about crooked politicians, the kind not concerned with people, but then I finally thought, maybe this was my chance to do something for a number of people.”
After Politics
While Gibson’s bid for office was unsuccessful, she explored interests besides sports after her tennis career ended. (Without much in the way of earnings, since there was no prize money at tournaments when she played.) She recorded an album, performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and appeared as a celebrity guest on a TV show; she also acted in film and worked as a sports commentator.
Gibson died of respiratory failure in East Orange in 2003 at the age of 76. In March 2012, a bronze statue honoring Althea Gibson was unveiled next to the 20-court Essex County Althea Gibson Tennis Center in Branch Brook Park in Newark (pictured above).
To continue reading more Black History NJ stories, click here to get the complete series.
Hero (Top) Feature Image: © Neelix / Wikimedia Commons
Additional Images (in Order) Courtesy:
Thomas Jay Warren (via DoctorJoeE) / Wikimedia Commons
