Sponsored by the A&S Office for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Critical Sports Studies, including the Ethnic Studies, History and Women & Gender Studies Departments.

From her start playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem as a young teenager to her twelve Grand Slam tennis wins to her professional golf career, Althea Gibson became the most famous black sportswoman of the mid-twentieth century. In her unprecedented athletic career, she was the first African American to win titles at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. In this comprehensive biography, Ashley Brown narrates the public career and private struggles of Althea Gibson (1927-2003). Based on extensive archival work and oral histories, Serving Herself sets Gibson's life and choices against the backdrop of the Great Migration, Jim Crow racism, the integration of American sports, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and second wave feminism. Throughout her life Gibson continuously negotiated the expectations of her supporters and adversaries, including her patrons in the black-led American Tennis Association, the white-led United States Lawn Tennis Association, and the media, particularly the Black press and community's expectations that she selflessly serve as a representative of her race.  

Monday, March 20th at 12 pm  Registration

Institute of

Behavioral Science

1440 15th St

Room: 150