Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson

Journalist Jacobs (The Other Barack) offers an affecting biography of Althea Gibson (1927–2003), the “first Black woman to be the number-one tennis player in the world.” Growing up in Harlem, Gibson suffered frequent beatings by her father and was by the age of 13 among the neighborhood’s “toughest streetfighters.” Her fortunes changed when Buddy Walker, a saxophonist who also worked with city police to supervise kids playing on the streets, noticed her athleticism and bought her two tennis rackets. Chronicling Gibson’s ascent to the top of the sport, Jacobs covers how the wealthy backers of Harlem’s Black Cosmopolitan Tennis Club rallied behind her, eager to “sponsor a member of their group who showed promise,” which led to her winning several national tournaments and becoming the first African American player to compete at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, where she won singles titles in 1957. Jacobs emphasizes the difficulties Gibson faced during and after her tennis career, including discrimination from the tennis establishment (many speculated the decision to leave her off the 1956 American Whiteman Cup team was driven by racism) and constant financial struggles—because women’s tennis had not yet become lucrative, for the first eight years of Gibson’s career she “earned so little money that she had never once had to file a tax return.” Thoroughly researched and movingly told, this warts-and-all portrayal of Gibson’s life is a winner. (Aug.)