Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and the first black athlete to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first person of color to win a Grand Slam title . The following year she won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals , then won both again in 1958, and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she wonGrand Slam tournaments, including six doubles titles, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Womens Sports Hall of Fame. She is one of the greatest players who ever lived, said Robert Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. Martina couldnt touch her. I think shed beat the Williams sisters. In the early 1960s she also became the first black player to compete on the womens professional golf tour.

Gibson was born on August 25, 1927, in the town of Silver, in Clarendon County, South Carolina, to Daniel and Annie Bell Gibson, who worked as sharecroppers on a cotton farm. The Great Depression hit rural southern farmers sooner than much of the rest of the country, so in 1930 the family moved to Harlem, where Altheas three sisters and brother were born. Their apartment was located on a stretch of 143rd Street that had been designated a Police Athletic League play area during daylight hours it was barricaded so that neighborhood children could play organized sports. Gibson quickly became proficient in paddle tennis, and by 1939, at the age of 12, she was the New York City womens paddle tennis champion.

Source: Wikipedia