Althea Gibson was a tennis player from South Carolina who was the first Black American to play at Wimbledon in 1951. She started off playing table tennis, where she was often the champion, and then was invited to play full court tennis by a musician named Buddy Walker.
She was a part of the American Tennis Association and won 12 championship titles, which earned her a scholarship at Florida A&M. Being a star athlete gave Althea the chance to travel to many different places to play tennis- for example, France – where she played in the French Open. She made a name for herself as a great tennis player and got to have new experiences and meet all types of different people while doing it!
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