On September 5, 1927, Althea Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina, and grew up in Harlem. She would become the first Black player — man or woman — to win a Grand Slam tennis title, and one of the most methodically overlooked champions in the history of the sport.

Gibson learned tennis on the streets of Harlem through a Police Athletic League program and was recognized early as exceptional. The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), which governed access to major tournaments, operated an informal system of racial segregation: tournaments were hosted at private clubs that did not admit Black members. Gibson could not qualify without competing in those tournaments; she could not compete in those tournaments without membership. The circuit was closed.

Alice Marble, a former champion who is white, wrote a pointed letter to American Lawn Tennis magazine in 1950 demanding that Gibson be allowed to compete. She was. Gibson entered the 1950 US Championships at Forest Hills — the first Black player in the tournament's history — and nearly won. She went on to win Wimbledon and the US Championships in 1957 and again in 1958. She was ranked number one in the world.

When she retired from amateur tennis in 1958, the endorsement offers that had gone to white champions did not come. The professional tour paid poorly. She transitioned to professional golf, becoming in 1964 the first Black woman admitted to the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She played without sponsorship. She retired from competitive sport in the 1970s and spent decades in financial difficulty.

She died in 2003. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.