Harlem's Finest | Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson

Join us for a conversation with prize-winning former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs, author of the latest biography Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson and Katrina Adams, the first African American to lead the United States Tennis Association (USTA).. This book talk is part of a series of programs highlighting the cultural impact of some of Harlem's finest residents.

GET THE BOOK | Copies of Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson will be available for purchase from the Schomburg Shop in Harlem and online at SchomburgShop.com. Sally Jacobs will sign books following the conversation.

About Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson

In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her astonishing performance on the court soon eclipsed the negative feelings being cast her way as she eventually became one of the greatest American tennis champions.

Gibson had a stunning career. Raised in New York and trained by a pair of tennis-playing doctors in the South, Gibson’s immense talent on the court opened the door for her to compete around the world. She won top prizes at Wimbledon and Forest Hills time and time again. Althea became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the second to appear on the cover of Time. In a crowning achievement, Althea Gibson became the No. One ranked female tennis player in the world for both 1957 and 1958. Seven years later she broke the color barrier again where she became the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

"Althea was truly a multi-hyphenate before that term came to be. Her name has often been listed in conversations about trailblazers and greats, but she was, in fact, one of one. As an African American female tennis player who won the US Open 60 years after Althea won the US Nationals, I recognize the opportunities this sport has provided me thanks to the courageous life of Althea Gibson. I was captivated by this book and by the historical context of Althea's achievements, her challenges, and ultimately her determination both on and off the court.” — Sloane Stephens

Katrina Adams served as the first African American to lead the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the first two-term Chairman and President of the UTSA and the first former player to hold that honor. Under her tutelage, the USTA achieved a number of major milestones, including the opening of the 100-court USTA National Campus in Orlando, the strategic transformation of the $600 million USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. and an unprecedented outreach effort into underserved communities in an effort to share the sport of tennis with more people. She has spent time as vice president of the International Tennis Federation and the Executive Director of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program, to name a few. Katrina started playing tennis at age 6 in a Chicago parks program. At 16, she was a two-time Illinois High School Association singles champion. Recruited by Northwestern University, she earned the NCAA doubles title there in 1987 and was twice voted All-American. In 1988 she joined the WTA Tour, retiring in 1999 with 20 career doubles titles. Ms. Adams was a USTA national coach 1999-2002, helping to develop some of the nation's top tennis players.

Sally H. Jacobs is a former reporter for the Boston Globe, a winner of the coveted George Polk Award and the winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting along with the Globe newsroom. She is the author of The Other Barack, a biography of Barack Obama’s father.

ASL interpretation will be provided upon availability of interpreters. Live captioning is available for streaming programs. Additional accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

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Make an appointment and visit the to see up close items like Althea Gibson's tennis uniform, tennis racket, photographs of the trailblazing athlete, and more.

HARLEM TO THE WORLD: Althea Gibson at the age of 3 moved to Harlem from South Carolina as many families had done following the Great Depression. She lived on 143rd Street between Lenox Avenue and Seventh Avenue, a designated Police Athletic Area, where she became a local table tennis champion. Little did she know that her love of sports and an introduction to the Harlem River Tennis Courts would eventually take her around the world to India, France, Jamaica, and more. For many Harlem residents, international travel and connections to the African Diaspora created cultural exchanges that informed their creativity, forged ties to others with like-minded political ideologies, and fostered an embrace of the multitude of cultures presented within the borders of their Harlem community. Telegrams, postcards, snapshots of steamship travel proclaim: from Harlem anywhere in the world is possible! —Exhibition Wall Text, 2019 A Ballad for Harlem, curated by Novella Ford

Image: Installation image from the 2019 Schomburg Center exhibition A Ballad for Harlem, featuring Tennis Uniform of Althea Gibson, 1957, Gift of Althea Gibson. Art and Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, United States