Althea Gibson

CTL-E-6887 · Person · other · 1927–2003

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07759 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6887.

Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player, born in Silver, South Carolina and raised in Harlem, New York, who broke the color line of international tennis. After dominating the American Tennis Association circuit for Black players, she became, in 1956, the first Black player to win a Grand Slam singles title, taking the French Championships. She then won the Wimbledon and U.S. Nationals singles titles in both 1957 and 1958, and Britannica records five Grand Slam singles, five doubles, and one mixed doubles championship in all. Ranked No. 1 in the world in 1957, she retired from amateur tennis after 1958 because amateurs earned no prize money, and in the 1960s she also played professional golf on the LPGA tour. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.

The record

• Also known as: Althea Neale Gibson

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0168. Firsts disposition: ASSERTED — 'first Black player to win a Grand Slam singles title (French Championships, 1956)' and Wimbledon/U.S. Nationals singles titles 1957–58, each supported by two authoritative sources in this record (International Tennis Hall of Fame and Encyclopaedia Britannica). No LPGA 'first' is asserted in the description; it rests on a single source here. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Gibson's record is the founding text of Black tennis — five major singles titles won while the sport's institutions were still deciding whether she belonged in the draw at all. Her later LPGA career, often treated as a footnote, shows the same barrier-crossing carried into a second sport. Photo: CLEARED — Althea Gibson in 1956 by Fred Palumbo (NYWTS).jpg, Public domain.

Relationships

• Harlem — from
  Gibson was born in South Carolina and raised in Harlem, New York, where she developed as a player.

Sources

• International Tennis Hall of Fame. "TennisWorthy: Althea Gibson" (Joel Drucker, ITHF Historian-at-Large). Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Althea Gibson." Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• Wikipedia. "Althea Gibson." Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6887 · Combined Graph record U-07759 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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