GospelCity Black History Month Salute – Pioneers in Sports

They ran the race, broke barriers and above all won based on the merit of their gifts and skills. Althea Gibson, Jackie Robinson, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are pioneers in their respective sports – tennis, baseball, basketball and golf. Between them there are enough inspiring stories and moments of triumph to fill history books, instead the lesson we find behind the lives of these groundbreaking individuals is that there is still room for many, many more. In continuing our celebration of Black History Month, we pay tribute to four more prominent figures.

Althea Gibson
“I always wanted to be somebody.”

Harlem, NY native Althea Gibson lived a life of firsts as a woman, African American and athlete. Often referred to as “the Jackie Robinson” of tennis, Althea Gibson overcame incredible odds to achieve great victories by breaking the color barrier.
As a youngster, Gibson was a runaway who had trouble in school and whose family was on welfare. Blues musician Buddy Walker witnessed Gibson playing table tennis and introduced her to tennis on a court in Harlem, where she was discovered by black physician, Walter Johnson who secured sponsorship for her further training.
After graduating from Florida A&M University, Althea Gibson was finally able to compete in the best tennis tournaments in the world because the color barrier had been broken. Throughout her career she would win both singles and doubles championships in the French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open. In an era of no big endorsement deals and prize monies, Gibson would retire and write an autobiography, record an album, Althea Gibson Sings, and even appear in a motion picture.
In 1964, she became the first African American to join and play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). And in 1971, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
On the brink of suicide following two aneurysms and a stroke, Althea Gibson’s plight was published in a tennis magazine leading to the former champion receiving almost a million dollars in checks from admirers and fans worldwide. Althea Gibson died of respiratory failure in 2003 and is buried in Orange, New Jersey.