Existing comment:
Althea Gibson, 1927-2003
Althea Gibson almost retired from tennis in 1955, but instead, she went on to win the 1956 singles title at the French Open. The following season, she won the singles titles at both Wimbledon and Forest Hills, New York (the precursor to the U.S. Open). Look magazine featured Gibson in an article for its November 12, 1957 issue, for which Genevieve Naylor, the photographer assigned to the story, posed Gibson in Harlem, on the very street where she had grown up (143rd Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues). While the young Gibson could often be seen playing paddle tennis in front of her building, tennis was not a popular sport in African American communities. After Gibson reached the top ranks, however, that began to change. As one of her fans later recalled, "everyone went out and bought a new racquet."
Genevieve Naylor, 1957 (printed c 1970) |