Tennis Hits the Books
In 2021, I mentioned on this site that I was interested in finding a copy of Althea Gibson’s autobiography. At that time, the book was long out of print and the only available copies were priced as a collectors items and way too rich for my blood. Later in the year, I was delighted when Randy Walker of New Chapter Press published a digitized version of the book once again making this book available to the masses.
Althea penned I Always Wanted to Be Somebody shortly after she won the singles titles at both Wimbledon and the US Championships (US Open) in 1958. In this book she provides a detailed and candid self-portrait. She starts her story in early childhood and builds a continuous arc through her tennis playing career as it stood at the time.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well written and engaging the book is, as I had previously come across some negative sentiment about it in other sources. Some people might be put off by some of the language and terminology. It is important to remember that this book was written in the late 1950s. While some words would no longer be used in current times, it is an accurate reflection of the vernacular of the era.
Althea warns readers that her attempt to tell the real story of her life wasn’t going to be pretty. She was obviously born with a wealth of natural athletic talent. In addition to tennis, she was naturally good at pretty much every sport. At the same time, her childhood was marked by what can fairly be described as truancy and juvenile delinquency. There are so many ways her life story could have turned out differently long before her tennis career even started.
When Althea was introduced to tennis, she quickly recognized that her free spirited nature was not going to be acceptable when competing in the sport. She determined that she would go along with the expected comportment and behavior on the tennis court that she had not previously exhibited in other circumstances. Her transformation is a testament to her intelligence and dedication to achieving success.
It is a common theme in player biographies in the amateur era to fill the pages with frustration and criticisms on how the USLTA treated the top tennis players. Althea’s book is unique in that hers also includes similar sentiments about the American Tennis Association. That organization was founded during segregation to build an infrastructure of tennis competition for African American competitors.
The ATA became frustrated that Althea stopped playing that organization’s tournaments when she started routinely getting accepted into USLTA events. At one point. the ATA even threatened to use it’s influence to keep her from playing at Forest Hills if she didn’t play their championships. It is absurd to imagine that the ATA would even consider lobbying to keep a black player out of the event after fighting so hard to get her in.
Fighting an amateur tennis association is worse than trying to fight City Hall; at least the men in City Hall are responsible to the people who elect them, but the tennis poobahs are responsible only to themselves, and they never forget it.
Althea Gibson in I Always Wanted to Be Somebody
In 1955, Althea was selected as a part of a tennis goodwill tour of southeast Asia sponsored by the US State Department. Althea harbored no illusions about why the State Department wanted her as a part of the delegation. It was shortly after the killing of Emmett Till, and they needed a person of color to represent the country. It was a PR move.
When preparing the players for that tour, the State Department warned Althea that she was likely to be asked a lot of questions about the life of persons of color in the United States. She was instructed to say what she thought was right, but also to remember that she was representing the United States. She apparently handled each question with aplomb.
As a player that competed in the amateur era, Althea did not capitalize financially on her athletic success. The final chapters of the book end with musings about what would be next in her life. One of those things was a brief career as a singer. I was delighted to discover that songs from an album she recorded is available on YouTube. I have included a link at the end of this post. It is good stuff.
I Always Wanted to Be Somebody isn’t a long book, but it is jam packed with insight into the life of Althea Gibson and that era of tennis. It is a story about an amazing woman breaking barriers and performing at the pinnacle of a sport. It is also a testament to the fact that people can be kinder than you expect them to be. New Chapter Press published this book for a reason: We should all read it.
 | Althea Gibson: I Always Wanted To Be Somebody |
