6 facts about Althea Gibson, the first Black U.S. Open winner

 

One summer morning, while out with a friend, Gibson "saw two bats and a ball on the paddle tennis court" outside her parents' home at 143rd Street between Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X boulevards (which was renamed Althea Gibson Way in 2022 on what would have been the athlete's 95th birthday.)

 

"And, from that moment on, we were the block paddle tennis court occupiers," Gibson said in the interview. "We would get up in the morning, as soon as they laid that court out, we were the first ones on, we stayed on, and we challenged anybody on the block to play us. Nobody would, so weirdly that's how I got started in tennis, through paddle tennis."

Gibson was 23 years old when she entered the public tennis scene in the summer of 1950 at the U.S. Nationals Championships at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, making her the first Black athlete to play in a U.S. national tennis competition. According to the U.S. Open’s official website, a thunderstorm halted Gibson’s second-round match against three-time Wimbledon champion Louise Brough. When a bolt of lightning struck one of the ornamental stone eagles atop the stadium, Gibson reportedly said, “It may have been an omen that times were changing.” 

In the summer of 1957, Gibson, then 29, became the first Black player to win the Wimbledon singles title at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England.

 

The Queen, who The Washington Post reported was in attendance at the tournament for the first time as monarch, awarded Gibson the Venus Rosewater Dish, a silver tray engraved with the names of previous Wimbledon winners. 

Shortly after her Wimbledon victory, Gibson returned home to a ticker tape parade in New York City, becoming the second Black American after Jesse Owens to be honored in that way. 

 

A month later, she won the U.S. National Championship (the precursor of the U.S. Open) against her old nemesis Louise Brough. "Winning Wimbledon was wonderful", she wrote at the time, "and it meant a lot to me. But there is nothing quite like winning the championship of your own country." The milestone would not be repeated by a Black female tennis player until 43 years later when Serena Williams won the first of her six U.S. Opens.

 

She repeated her Wimbledon and U.S. National singles titles victories in 1958, and was named Female Athlete of the Year by the AP for both 1957 and 1958. 

 

All this glory also arrived with other firsts as she became he first Black woman to appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time.

Gibson had a prolific career on and off the court. After retiring from amateur tennis in 1958, Gibson turned toward the professional field and the entertainment industry. She began singing, even releasing a jazz record, “Althea Gibson Sings,” through Dot Records in 1959. Her vocal talent saw her invited to perform two tracks off the album on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” That same year, Gibson starred alongside John Wayne in John Ford’s Civil War-era western film “The Horse Soldiers.”