A Rare Recording of Tennis Great Althea Gibson

Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer. In 1956, she became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam event (the French Open). The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor of the US Open), then won both again in 1958 and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam titles: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971[7] and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. In the early 1960s, she also became the first Black player to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. The following recordings include a tv interview after Gibson's 1957 Wimbledon championship, her on-court speech after winning the 1957 US Open, a tv broadcast of Gibson's 1958 Wimbledon championship, and a tv interview from 1973.