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WNYC “All of It”: Full Bio: ALthea Gibson

ALL OF IT is a show about culture and context. Our ‘Full Bio’ this month will focus on tennis great Althea Gibson, who broke barriers as one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line and compete on an international stage in tennis.

”We’re spending the week talking to Sally Jacobs, author of the biography Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson.
— Alison Stewart, All of It

“Full Bio,” All of It with Alison Stewart (podcast), produced by WNYC and distributed by NPR, February 19 –22, 2024.

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WaPo: How U.S. institutions took an African teen’s life, then lost his remains

His name was Sturmann Yanghis. He was a 17-year-old South African brought by ship to the United States in 1860 with four other young men billed in the press as ‘wild African savages’ who had ‘never before been brought into contact with civilization.’ Each represented a different Indigenous group.

… The show, however, was largely a lie. The five men were not wild savages but laborers, most of them from the bustling city of Port Elizabeth, according to one South African newspaper.
— Sally H. Jacobs

Sally H. Jacobs, “How U.S. institutions took an African teen’s life, then lost his remains,” Washington Post, December 3, 2023.

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Smithsonian Magazine: Sports Legend Served Up Tennis History When She Broke Through

When Althea Gibson stepped onto the patio of the iconic clubhouse at the West Side Tennis Club in 1950, a pair of tennis rackets clasped tightly to her chest, she had arrived at the venerated mecca of tennis in America. Here, at this exclusive, whites-only, members-only retreat in Forest Hills, Queens, the a 23-year-old from Harlem was to become the first African American to compete in the U.S. National Championships, known today as the U.S. Open.…

It was a place that, like many other public and private venues, denied Black people access. That changed when Gibson boldly strode onto the court.

Her barrier-breaking appearance at the West Side Tennis club foretold her legendary career, which over the next decade would grow to include 11 Grand Slam victories.
— Sally H. Jacobs

Sally H. Jacobs, “Sports Legend Althea Gibson Served Up Tennis History When She Broke Through in 1950,” adapted from Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson, WOMEN WHO SHAPED HISTORY: A Smithsonian magazine special report, Smithsonian Magazine, August 8, 2023.

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