Althea Gibson

My Google webpage doodle today was a cartoon of a black woman playing tennis, in honor of Althea Gibson.

Who is Althea Gibson? I am ashamed to say I've never heard of her, and wish I had known about her earlier.

According to an article on ESPN.com and her Wikipedia entry, Gibson was the first black player to cross the racial line in international tennis. She became the first African-American to win the singles Grand Slam title (from the French Open) in 1956. Did I mention she also partnered with Angela Buxton to win the doubles title of the same French Open too?

Then in 1957, she became the first black person to win the Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals Tennis players, two of the most prestigious world titles in tennis! Then, she repeated her victories at the same two tournaments in 1958 as well! As a result, she was voted by the Associate Press as its "Female Athlete of the Year" in 1957 and '58, and became the top seeded player in the world for those.

But her accomplishments doesn't stop there. Not only did she break racial barriers in the sports arena, she was also the first African-American woman to grace the covers of Sports Illustrated and Time magazine.

WHAM! You go girl!

Sadly, racial barriers continued to be erected against her and other players of color. It would be another 15 years before another woman of color won the Wimbledon and French Open titles again (Evonne Goolagon, an Australian Aboriginal). Gibson also revealed that though she was ranked the top tennis player, there was (at that time) little money to be made from playing professional tennis. Hence, she retired from the tennis circuit after her victories, and went on to try her hand in various other ventures.

Gibson didn't let racial and gender barriers stand in her way in pursuit of her dreams- truly a woman to be highlighted for her accomplishments. Thank you Google making us more aware of this inspiring woman.