[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 138 (Thursday, October 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ALTHEA GIBSON

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 2, 2003

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON. Mr. Speaker, it is with sadness that I pay 
tribute to the memory of a remarkable woman who was the first black 
player to win Wimbledon and a pre-eminent figure in women's tennis, 
Althea Gibson. I would like to extend my greatest sympathy to the 
Gibson family by taking a moment to reflect on the rich life of this 
fine person.
  The eldest of five children, Gibson was born in South Carolina but 
raised in the Harlem section of New York City. While her future 
opponents were developing their tennis on the courts of country clubs 
she was getting into trouble on West 143rd which was a play area 
blocked off to traffic. She learned paddle ball, a sort of poor-girl 
tennis with solid wooden rackets.
  She was a self-described ``born athlete'' who broke racial barriers 
not only in tennis but in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She 
even toured with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team after 
retiring from tennis in the late 1950s.
  On Aug. 28, 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson had broken the 
color barrier in major league baseball, Ms. Gibson became the first 
black player to compete in the precursor to the U.S. Open.
  Ms. Gibson dominated women's tennis from 1956-58, winning 11 Grand 
Slam titles: five in singles, five in doubles and one in mixed doubles.
  She captured the Wimbledon and U.S. championships in 1957 and 1958, 
and also won the French Open, and three Wimbledon doubles titles (1956-
58).
  After the circuit, she launched herself into the business of 
supporting herself. She toured with the Harlem Globetrotters. She was a 
proud member of a community service organization, Alpha Kappa Alpha 
Sorority, Inc.
  Mr. Speaker, Ms. Gibson was known as a proud woman who for years 
declined to take money from friends who tried to help when she was 
living on Medicare and Social Security payments. Her front door bore a 
simple plaque: ``Bless this home and all who enter.''
  I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering the honorable and 
gracious memory of Althea Gibson. I am certain that her legacy will 
endure for years to come.

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