During all of this chaos, Althea Gibson was born August 25, 1927, in Silver, South Carolina. "Her father Daniel was a sharecropper, and her mother Annie was a strong woman who once boasted, ' I could jump on a cow or a hog just as if it were a horse" (Grimsley 163). Since her father only worked 5 acres of corn and cotton, their family was not financially secure. It was very hard for them to support their large family. Althea was the oldest of four children, two other girls ad a boy. During the throes of the Depression, their family decided to move to New York to live with their Aunt. Althea was the first of four children to move over there. Her family was only able to send one child over at a time because of the high cost of plane tickets. …show more content…
The rest of Althea's family eventually made it over to New York City together and decided to buy an apartment for the family.Throughout Althea's entire tennis career, she broke many barriers for herself and others as well. "After many years of training to play in the major tournaments, she found the doors closed to racism"(Woolum 127). Gibson started off by playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem, until recreation director, Buddy Walker, offered her two second-hand rackets and free lessons with the legendary one-armed coach, Fred Johnson. Johnson was so impressed with her ability, that he asked her if she wanted to become an honorary member of The Cosmopolitan Tennis Club. "After finishing high school, she received a tennis scholarship from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she officially started her tennis career" (Oglesby par.2). At the age of 15, Gibson won the singles event in the New York State "Black Girls' Tennis Championships." She then won the ATA Women's Singles Titles every year from 1947 to