GIBSON, ALTHEA

born Aug. 25, 1927, Silver, S.C., U.S. Althea Gibson receiving congratulations from her opponent, Darlene Hard, for winning the Wimbledon American tennis player who dominated women's competition in the late 1950s. She was the first African American to win the Wimbledon and U.S. singles championships. Gibson grew up in her native Silver, South Carolina, and in New York City. She began playing tennis at an early age under the auspices of the New York Police Athletic League, and in 1948 she won the national Negro women's title, which she would hold for 10 consecutive years. While attending Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, she continued to play in tournaments around the country and in 1950 became the first African American tennis player to enter the national grass court championship tournament at Forest Hills, Queens, New York. The next year she entered the Wimbledon tournament, again as the first African American ever invited. Until 1956 Gibson had only fair success in match tennis play, but that year she won a number of tournaments in Asia and Europe, including the French and Italian singles titles and the women's doubles title at Wimbledon. In 195758 she won the Wimbledon women's singles and doubles titles and took the U.S. women's singles championship at Forest Hills. She also won the U.S. mixed doubles and the Australian women's doubles in 1957. Having worked her way to top rank in world amateur tennis, she turned professional following her 1958 Forest Hills win. She won the women's professional singles title in 1960, but with few tournaments and prizes for women at that time she took up professional golf in 1963. From 1973 she became active in sports administration, mainly for the state of New Jersey. Her autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody, appeared in 1958. In 1971 she was elected to the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame.