SANDY KOZEL

                                    
TIM MAGUIRE

The tennis star is 44 years young today.

On August 21, 1950, officials of the United States Lawn
Tennis Association accepted Althea Gibson into their
annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making
her the first African American player to compete in a U.S.
national tennis competition.

Althea Neale Gibson
(August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003

Gibson survived a heart attack in 2003, but died on
September 28 that year from complications following
respiratory and bladder infections. Her body was
interred in the Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, New
Jersey, near her first husband, Will.

Statue of Gibson by Thomas Jay Warren in Newark, New
Jersey, near the courts (in background) on which she ran
clinics for young players in her later years.

On July 6, 1957, Althea Gibson claimed the women’s singles
tennis title at Wimbledon and became the first African
American to win a championship at London’s All England
Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Althea Neale Gibson
(August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003)

Gibson survived a heart attack, but died
shortly after from complications following
respiratory and bladder infections.

On July 6, 1957, Althea Gibson claimed the women’s singles tennis
title at Wimbledon and becomes the first African American to win a championship at London’s All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet
Club.

Gibson was born on August 25, 1927, in Silver, South Carolina,
and raised in the Harlem section of New York City. She began
playing tennis as a teenager and went on to win the national
Black women’s championship twice.

Althea Neale Gibson  (1927 – 2003)