When we left Althea in part one, she was 24 and after years of training, practice, competition, and a village of supporters working with her and behind the scenes, she was finally invited to the American Lawn Tennis Association Championship at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York in 1950! Getting to this national tournament wasn’t easy, but few things in Althea’s life are.
It wasn’t easy to get to Forest Hills, or through college, or onto a short-lived career as a college physical education teacher…it wasn’t even easy to get her application through to become a WAC, a member of the military Women’s Army Corps, a position that never fully panned out for Althea. She was floundering in her life and ready to give up tennis when she was tapped by the US State Department for a Goodwill Tour to Asia, along with three other tennis players.
This travel led Althea to travel on her own throughout Europe to play in tournaments, improve her game, and play with the best competition in the world! Soon she became that competition for others, winning her first major tournament in France then on to the oldest in the world: Wimbledon. She cracked through racial barriers, gender barriers, and economic barriers to win scores of tournaments including 11 “Grand Slam” tournaments: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title.
Althea’s first Wimbledon singles victory, Queen Elizabeth’s first Wimbledon 1957With Darlene Hard, singles runner-up Wimbledon 1957After Wimbledon in 1957, the first person of color to win the oldest tennis tournament in the world, NYC welcomed back their own daughter with a ticker tape parade.
Althea made two appearances on the Ed Sullivan show, this is after her historic Wimbledon win
But competitive tennis in the 1950s was for amateurs only, and Althea couldn’t support herself playing the game she loved by competition, so she retired in 1958 and crafted an interesting life recording an album, appearing twice on the Ed Sullivan Show, writing an autobiography, acting, and modeling for ads until she landed a five-year run touring with the Harlem Globetrotters to play exhibition games. When that ended, she began to hit a different type of ball when she toured with the Ladies Pro Golfer Association (LPGA.)
Her second Ed Sullivan appearance and she sings!
Althea gave tennis clinics and talks about being a Black, female athlete for the rest of her life.
The remainder of her life was full of struggles and successes…just like the years that came before. Althea Gibson died on September 28, 2003, she was 76 years old.
By Sally Jacobsby Ashley BrownBy Frances Clayton Gray and Yanick Rice LambAbout Althea and Angela Buxton by Bruce SchoenfeldFirst autobiographySecond autobiography
Kid books we liked:
By Sue Stauffacher and Greg CouchBy Lesa Cline-Ransome
Web!
We have a Pinterest board for every subject, it’s a glorious place to dive into some rabbit Holes! Here is Althea’s!
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture online exhibit about Althea, and she’s represented at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island (to access the museum’s Metaverse, go to the VISIT page and scroll down.)
Resilient Grace is an online retailer with a mission of telling the stories of historic, African American women (Susan has a few of her shirts including the Shirley Chisholm one that she wears when she votes!)
This is the kind of sports jersey we can get behind!
Our 2024 Field Trips to Austria and Paris are both sold out, and there are just a few spaces for our New York trip in September. There, we will also have a Locals’ Meet-up Dinner Cruise that’s open for reservations now. If you’re interested in any of these, please see Like Minds Travel for information and to sign up!
Break Music: Slow Cookin’ by Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles; End Song: Play the Game by Lilly Wolf used by permission from iLicense Music.
We recently traveled across our home state of Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis to visit the Missouri History Museum. While it’s a fine museum, we were there for a specific reason: to do a live show about pioneering photojournalist, Jessie Tarbox Beals. We know that a lot of you would have loved to have been there to learn about this extraordinary woman, so we re-recorded the show in an audio-only format for you.
There are quite a few lines on a tennis court; sideline, baseline, service line – all of which have their functions. But beginning in 1950, a powerful and charismatic African American athlete named Althea Gibson began to smash tennis’ color lines, one after another. Althea Gibson broke new ground and changed the world’s perception of what was possible in the world of sports.
All media recommendations will be on the shownotes for Part Two.
Mrs. L in 1953 at nearly 70, via Library of Congress
On paper, Alice Roosevelt’s life reads like a typical young society woman: Debut at 17, travel, friends, parties, marriage to a wealthy and important man, and eventually, motherhood. But Alice’s life was far from typical. For starters, her travel was for official United States goodwill missions, her friends were some of the wealthiest in the world, and the parties were expensive balls where “Be Naughty” seemed to be her rule of the day. She smoked, she bet on horses, she flirted and rode around in cars with men…and America, and soon the world, LOVED her!
Alice circa 1902, Library of Congress
When it came to marriage, Alice chose Representative Nicholas Longworth from Ohio, a wealthy respected, and charming man who loved his drink and women–including ones that were not his wife. They did have a very public, Power Couple life hobbing and nobbing with influential politicians, and Alice- with her quick wit and intelligence became so important to the government- without ever holding an office- that she earned the nickname, Washington’s Other Monument.
The uuuuh happy couple and Papa? Library of Congress
In this episode, we continue with the story not only of the life of Alice, or Mrs. L as she came to be called, but also continue to take a good look at the most influential man in her life, her father, President Theodore Roosevelt. It’s really a two-fer!
Alice and baby Paulina, 1925, Library of Congress
Alice Roosevelt Longsworth died after a very long, very influential, and very unconventional life at her home in Washington, DC on February 20, 1980. She is buried with her daughter, Paulina Sturm, at Rock Creek Cemetary in Washington, D.C.
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
Deepest dive, by Stacy A. CorderyBook Beckett read first, by Carol FelsenthalThe newest biography, by Shelley Fraser MickleCharming with lots of photos by Michael TeagueFor your Eleanor Roosevelt fix by Marc Peyser and Timothy DwyerA picture book for kids, we were charmed! By Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham
Web!
If you find yourself near Long Island, NY, head on over to the Roosevelt summer estate, Sagamore Hill (the one that should have been named Leeholm until Alice’s mother died.) Tours are limited and by reservation, so plan ahead.
The scripted, historical drama, Crowded Hours, is an Amazon Original starring Emma Roberts as Alice! Does HBO Max still have the television series based on Alice’s life in production? We don’t know, but we are hoping really hard that it’s true!
Join us on our Field Trip to Paris in October of 2024! For information and to register, visit Like Minds Travel. We hope to see you there!
Alice Lee Roosevelt, circa 1902, Library of Congress
President Theodore Roosevelt had many challenges during his career… corruption in the New York police force, the creation of the Panama Canal, the Spanish-American war, protecting the Grand Canyon and other national monuments, and groundbreaking anti-trust legislation…but the greatest challenge he faced was a volcano in a blue dress, his eldest daughter – flouter of convention, spicy of demeanor, and perhaps the world’s first media superstar who admirers across the world came to call America’s “Princess Alice.”
The Roosevelt family, circa 1903, Library of Congress. L-R: Quentin, Theodore Sr., Theodore, Jr., Archie, Alice. Kermit, Edith, and EthelThe kind of deep dive information you come to us for. You’re welcome.
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Sources and media recommendations will be on the shownotes for Part Two
Break music: Haper Active, A Fork Where A Fork Don’t Fit
