Women Who Won the Right to Greatness in the World of Tennis
By
John C Abercrombie
Today, we watch some of the world’s greatest tennis players, such as The Williams Sisters, Venus and Serena, Cori “Coco” Gauff without realizing that it has not always been this way.
These individual players have put a tremendous amount of practice in to develop into world class athletes. We don’t often think of the long, difficult and obstacle ridden path it has been getting to this level of acceptance.
In the not too distant past, there were few opportunities for Blacks to have access to a tennis court. Recreation areas in Black neighborhoods did not have courts and early players often had to sneak onto courts in White neighborhoods, risking harassment, physical attack and arrest for doing so. Strict segregation was rampant in many locations, there were laws that made it illegal for any competition between the races.
It stands to reason that if the Race claiming superiority and putting forth laws that reinforced superiority would not be reluctant in the least to exploit their superiority. Therefore, these restrictive laws may be viewed more as an attempt to maintain the impression of superiority rather than to prove it.
This post focuses on amazing women of the world of tennis, however, starting the general discussion beings into focus a most inspiring figure in the sport. Bob Ryland, who today (2019) is still involved coaching and encouraging young players. There are amazing videos of Ryland, including an interview on the “Today” show which follow this post.
Ora Mae Washington did not begin to play organized sports until she was 25 years old. She started playing as a way to console herself after her sister passed away. She was amazing and won her first national tournament within a year of picking up her first racquet.
At the time of Ora Mae Washington, tennis was strictly segregated. A group of Black businessmen, college professors, physicians and professionals formed the American Tennis Association (ATA). It was formed in Washington, DC in 1916 and became the oldest Black sports organization in the United States.
Ora Mae Washington won numerous titles and held the ATA national title from 1929 to 1936. She continued to play winning her last doubles title at the age of 46.
The best White female player of the day was considered to be Helen Willis Moody, who steadfastly refused to play Washington.
Washington also excelled in basketball. She played with the Philadelphia Tribunes, one of the most dominant women’s teams in basketball history. The Tribunes played mostly Black teams but also played White teams and even men’s teams, beating them all.
Ora Mae Washington died at the age of 73 in 1971.
She was inducted into the Black Athletes hall of Fame in1976.
She was inducted into Temple University’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986
She was elected into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2009.
Althea Gibson comes to mind of older readers as she is one of the best-known early stars of the sport. She was multitalented and also a pioneer in the world of Women’s Professional Golf, and a singer with albums to prove it.
Althea had to sneak onto courts to practice. She played during a period when the sport was amateur and therefore held no opportunity for the large purses that are in existence today. The most players of the time could expect were travel expenses. With segregation practices strictly enforced, we see the best player of the game often having to change clothes in her car because she was barred from the change rooms accessible to every other player.
In the early days, it was necessary to rely on “The Green Book”, a national book of locations, showing where Blacks could find places that would welcome their business. Where they could find a place to eat or stay, even buy gas. Things that we accept today were not available in earlier days. People would be treated without respect or dignity. They could expect downright racist treatment, intended to embarrass and put then “in their place”.
The phrase “in their place” referred to the place many White people saw Black people occupying, such as sitting in the back of the bus, segregated train and street cars, separate rest rooms, being relegated to the balcony in movies, cleaning White people’s houses and the list of demeaning stereotypes goes on and on.
Althea Gibson is described by Bob Ryland, who also coached the Williams sisters as the greatest player he had ever seen. Born in Silver, South Carolina. Her father Daniel and mother Annie Bell Gibson were sharecroppers on a cotton farm. Hit by the devastating effects of the Great Depression, they moved to Harlem when Althea was 3.
Althea became very good at paddle tennis, a form of tennis played on a smaller court and with a solid paddle and deflated ball. In 1940, Gibson was introduced to tennis. By 1941, she won her first tournament, the American Tennis Association New York State Championship. The American Tennis Association was the premier Black tennis governing body. At the time Blacks were not welcomed in the United States Tennis Association. She also won the girls division in 1944 and 1945. After losing the women’s final in 1946, she won her first 10 straight national ATA omen’s titles.
Gibson is often quoted “I knew that I was an unusual, talented girl, through the grace of God, I didn’t need to prove that to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents.”
Under the patronage of Dr. Walter Johnson, a Lynchburg, Virginia physician, she gained access to advanced instruction and competed in the USTA. She moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1946 and attended the racially segregated Williston Industrial High School. Although she had initially dropped out of school at the age of 13, she graduated from Williston Industrial High School and entered Florida A&M University a noted HBCU on a full athletic scholarship.
She became the first Black woman to play in the USTA’s National Indoor Championships, reaching the quarter-finals.
It is impossible to tackle the problem of segregation without looking at the full picture. While Althea was gaining a reputation as a high-level player, she was for all intent and purpose barred from entering the prestigious United States national Championship, now known as the US Open.
USTA rules prohibited racial or ethnic discrimination, however, players qualified for the Tournament by accumulating points at sanctioned tournaments. The problem here is that the sanctioned tournaments were held at white-only clubs. Effectively barring players on the basis of race and ethnicity.
Gibson as able to play due to the result of intense lobbying by the ATA, (the reigning Black Tennis association) and White retired champion Alice Marble. Marble published a scathing letter in the American Lawn Tennis magazine that allowed Gibson to play.
The full picture shows that while the governing body forbid discrimination, the failure to ensure that the entire system was in sync resulted in rampant discrimination. The same way it is in the life of people affected by an injustice.
Gibson made her debut at Forest Hills on her 23rd birthday. She lost in the second round playing Louise Brough, the reigning Wimbledon champion and former United States National winner. Gibson received national and international coverage for her performance.
Lester Rodney, journalist wrote “No Negro player, man or woman has ever set foot on these courts, in many ways, it is even a tougher personal Jim Crow-busting assignment than was Jackie Robinson’s when he first stepped out of the Brooklyn Dodgers dugout.”
Gibson won her first international title in 1951 and later that year became one of the first Black competitors at Wimbledon. She was ranked 7th nationally by the USTA in 1952. In 1953 she graduated from Florida A&M, later taking a teaching job at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1956 Gibson became the first African-American athlete to win a Grand Slam tournament
Althea describes 1957 as “Althea Gibson’s Year”.
She was seeded 1st at Wimbledon, which was considered “The World Championship of Tennis”. She won the singles title. She was the first Black champion in the tournament’s 80-year history and the first to receive the trophy personally from Queen Elizabeth.
“Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus.”
Gibson also won the doubles championship for the second time.
When she returned to the United States, she was given a ticker tape parade in New York City with Mayor Robert F Wagner presenting her with the Bronze Medallion, the city’s highest civilian award.
A month later she won the United States National Championship. “Winning Wimbledon was wonderful, and it mean a lot to me. But there is nothing quite like winning the championship of your own country.”
All total in 1957, she reached the finals of 8 Grand Slam events, winning the Wimbledon and US National singles titles, the Wimbledon and Australian doubles championships and the US mixed doubles crown and finishing 2nd in Australian singles. Winning the US doubles and mixed doubles.
She also broke yet another barrier as ther first Black player on the US Wightman Cup team, which defeated Great Britain.
Gibson as named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press
1958 was also a great year for Gibson. She defended her Wimbledon and US National singles titles. She won her 3rd straight Wimbledon doubles championship and was the number 1 ranked woman in the world. She was named Female Athlete of the year for the 2nd time and became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time magazine.
Not to be overlooked is Zina Garrison was a phenomenal player. She was singles runner up at Wimbledon in 1990. Garrison won 3 Grand Slam mixed doubles and a women’s doubles gold medalist and singles bronze medalist in the 1988 Olympic Games.
Most have heard of the Williams Sisters, Venus and Serena and their amazing accomplishments, which they were able to do because of pioneers like Bob Ryland, Althea Gibson, Zina Garrison. This post featured female stars of the game and did not cover such outstanding contributors to the game such as Arthur Ashe who will be featured in a future post.
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Tennis pioneers Videos and Books
Robert Ryland Today Show
Bob Ryland, a repeat singles winner on the ATA national circuit, won hundreds of tournaments and achieved many “firsts” on the court. He coached world-class pros, as well as celebrities, became the first black to compete in the NCAA National Championships, was the player-coach at Tennessee A&I, twice leading his team to the small college national championships and was the first black to play on Jac March’s World Pro Tour. In short, he was the First Black Professional Male Tennis Player. This is HIS story in HIS Words!
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My Story: Robert Ryland, First Black Professional Male Tennis Player (As Told to: Dr. Darlene Powell Garlington & Eileen Harris [E.H. Graphics])
99-Year-Old Bob Ryland, a repeat singles winner on the American Tennis Association National circuit, won hundreds of tournaments and achieved many “firsts” on the court. He coached world-class pros, as well as celebrities, became the first black to compete in the NCAA National Championships, was the player-coach at Tennessee A&I, twice leading his team to the small college national championships and was the first black to play on Jack March’s World Pro Tour. In short, he was the First Black Professional Male Tennis Player, and This is HIS Story in HIS Words!
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Bob Ryland Tennis Legend/ Barrier Breaker
Bob Ryland broke the color barrier in professional tennis in 1959 as he had done previously in NCAA competition in 1946. This is his story.
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Bob Ryland In His Own Words
This is an ongoing series of conversations with Bob Ryland, first Black professional tennis player. Bob talks about his life, what it was like growing up in Alabama and Chicago in the 1920s, his family, people he knew, players he coached, and the game of tennis. This is the first installment of the life and times of Bob Ryland – in his own words.
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Ora Mae Washington: The Black Queen of Tennis
She was truly a titan within the sports world, over her career she won 201 championships from tennis and basketball but was virtually unknown outside of the black sports world. She would die in 1971 at the age of seventy-three as a pioneer in the world of women’s sports.
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A Kindle version of this book is available with a subscription to Kindle. An amazing way to educate and entertain yourself. I recommend Kindle
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Zina Garrison Explains Sexism/Racism In Tennis, Training Serena Williams, Tennis Tips, & More
Tennis legend Zina Garrison stopped by the Madd Hatta Morning Show to discuss her tennis academy in Houston, experiencing racism and sexism in tennis, & what it was like training Serena Williams. Garrison also explains that regardless of the recent controversy, she believes Serena Williams still would’ve lost the match to Naomi Osaka.
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Tennis Sensation Coco Gauff Discusses Her Rise To Fame | TODAY
Tennis sensation Coco Gauff stopped by Studio 1A to share her experience at the U.S. Open and how her life has changed since she was thrust into the spotlight. “It’s special to know I can affect someone’s life in some way,” the 15-year-old said.
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Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka’s emotional joint postmatch interview | 2019 US Open
In a show of sportsmanship, Naomi Osaka invites Coco Gauff to join her postmatch interview after defeating her in straight sets. Both are emotional as Gauff reflects on the match and Osaka compliments Coco’s parents.
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Renewed Computers
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Top Ranked Junior Tennis Player Told She Is Too Overweight
U.S. Open officials tell Taylor Townsend she should not compete due to her weight.
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The Black Women’s Guide to Business
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