Althea Gibson will receive a high honor in New York City on what would be have been her 95th birthday when West 143rd Street in Harlem will be renamed “Althea Gibson Way.”
The ceremony will be held on August 25th from noon to 2 p.m. at West 143rd Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards, where Gibson grew up as a young girl. Gibson family members as well as other tennis VIPs are scheduled to appear.
Gibson broke the color barrier in tennis when she first played in the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills in 1950. She became the first black player to win a major title at the French Championships in 1956 and won Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in both 1957 and 1958.
Wrote Bud Collins in his famous tennis encyclopedia “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” or Gibson, “No player overcame more obstacles to become a champion than Althea Gibson, the first black to win at Wimbledon, Forest
Hills and the French. Her entry in the U.S. Championships of 1950 at Forest Hills was historic: The first appearance of a black American in that event.”
In 2019, the United States Tennis Association honored Gibson with a statue in her honor on the grounds of the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center, where the U.S. Open is played.
In 2022, Althea Gibson’s autobiography “I Always Wanted To Be Somebody” was re-released and can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559971/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_9QYX67JWHF6F6Z50TGQD
“I Always Wanted To Be Somebody” is the intimate and candid story of a girl who grew up in the asphalt environs of Harlem, skipping school, drinking hard liquor, stealing and fist-fighting, but went on to break the color barrier in tennis and achieving the pinnacle of the sport by winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships and becoming an inspiration for many future champions.
Hall of Fame tennis legend and pioneer Billie Jean King, who said she used to sleep with “I Always Wanted To Be Somebody” under her pillow as a girl, contributed the foreword to the new edition, writing, “Althea was our Jackie Robinson of tennis, and the barriers show broke down and the doors she opened have paved the way for generations of tennis players. Her contributions to our sport and to our world are many. Without Althea, there may not have been an Arthur Ashe, Leslie Allen, Zina Garrison, James Blake, Chanda Rubin, Mal Washington, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, Frances Tiafoe or Naomi Osaka.”
