Althea Gibson, Tennis Star Ahead of Her Time, Gets Her Due at Last.
'On Monday, the U.S. Open will unveil a new statue of Gibson, who achieved many firsts for African-Americans in tennis.
In the summer of 1950, the national women’s tennis championships at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, reached a turning point. On one side was the favorite, Louise Brough, a blond Californian and the reigning Wimbledon champion. On the other side was the rangy, Harlem-raised Althea Gibson. She was not only the first African-American to play in the iconic tournament, the forerunner of the United States Open, but she also appeared headed toward a historic victory, leading by 1-6, 6-3, 7-6.
“Fans were shouting from the stands for Althea’s opponent to: ‘Beat the nigger. Beat the nigger,’ ” Bertram Baker, a New York Assemblyman, would recall later.
Then torrents of rain suddenly began to fall from the darkening skies. Fans raced for cover as a bolt of lightening shattered one of the stone eagles atop the stadium, and play was suspended.
“I’ll always remember it as the day the gods got angry,” said Baker, executive secretary of the American Tennis Association, an African-American organization.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/sports/tennis/althea-gibson-statue-us-open.html?
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