75 Years Later, Althea Gibson’s Legacy Still Resonates
Michelle Curry, Estate Executor and COO, Althea Gibson Community Tennis Association, with Credit One Charleston Open Tournament Director Bob Moran.
CREDIT ONE CHARLESTON OPEN HONORS SOUTH CAROLINA TRAILBLAZER
Long before Venus and Serena Williams began amassing major titles; before Sloane Stephens, Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff or Madison Keys experienced Grand Slam glory, Althea Gibson was paving the way.
It was the South Carolina native, after all, who broke the color barrier when she stepped onto the West Side Tennis Club courts in Forest Hills on August 28, 1950, for the U.S. Nationals. On Sunday, the Credit One Charleston Open took a moment to celebrate the 75th anniversary of her far-reaching accomplishment, appropriately, on her namesake court: Althea Gibson Club Court.
“Althea was a person who believed in a village. She believed that anything she accomplished, others helped her get there. So her blazing the trail for the Venuses, the Sloanes, the Naomis, the Cocos — it was just part of the nature of the beast for her. That is what she did,” said the Althea Gibson Community Tennis Association’s Michelle Curry. “She believed in sharing, in educating, in advocating, in passing on what she knew, and to make the ones she taught better than her. That’s a true teacher.”
“We will continue to honor Althea’s legacy for many, many years to come,” said Credit One Charleston Open Tournament Director Bob Moran.
Gibson was the first African American tennis player to win a Grand Slam when she captured the Roland Garros title in 1956. In total, she would win 11 Grand Slam titles between singles, doubles and mixed, and was a consistently ranked among the Top 10. She was also an accomplished golfer, the first African American woman to join the LPGA tour. Fellow International Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King, herself a mold-breaker, once called Gibson “our Jackie Robinson.”
“All the things she’s done for people like me, people that look like me, to be in the sport now, it’s just astonishing,” said Serena Williams in 2019.
