Althea Gibson: The pioneering champion America forgot
On Monday, a bronze sculpture of Gibson, the first black player to win a Grand Slam, will be unveiled outside Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in New York - the world's biggest tennis arena named after another pioneering African-American. These two tributes stand as testaments to obstacles overcome, during a time when the United States was politically and socially rooted in racial segregation.
Gibson, pictured here with Marble at Forest Hills in 1950, went on to win five Grand Slam singles titles – the French Open (1956), Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and the US Open (1957, 1958) By Jonathan Jurejko, BBC Sport in New York “Everything was white. The balls, the clothes, the socks, the shoes, the people. Ev-ery-thing.” […]