Today in history: First Black Wimbledon Champ

[Callalily]

First Black Wimbledon Champ
July 6, 1957

In less than an hour, Althea Gibson dismantled her opponent, Darlene Hard, and made history by becoming the first Black Wimbledon champion. It was a 100-degree day at Wimbledon in 1957, and Gibson beat Hard in straight sets. In the stands, also bearing the heat, was Queen Elizabeth II. Later, Gibson joked that the hardest thing for her that day was remembering to curtsy for the queen.

Gibson grew up in Harlem and, several years earlier, became the first Black athlete to play in the women’s national championship. She nearly won it too, but faced rain, unwavering attention, and racist slurs throughout the competition. Two years later, though, she was ranked No. 1 in the sport and won the French Open soon after. Returning to New York after her Wimbledon victory, Gibson received a ticker-tape parade down Broadway as an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets. Yet, it was tough for Gibson to earn a living playing tennis, in part due to the racial discrimination she faced. “To hail my talents in public doesn’t cost anything, but to hire a Negro — and a Negro woman at that — to teach white club members called for a bigger expenditure of courage than most club owners were willing to make,” she once said. For her barrier-breaking contribution to the sport, a statue of Gibson was erected outside the National Tennis Center in Queens in 2019.