Gibson at Wimbledon

Althea Gibson has already won the French and the U.S. Nationals. In 1957 she wins Wimbledon. Queen Elizabeth II presents the trophy. The All England Club has to rewrite its idea of who belongs on that lawn.

American tennis had segregated its own pipeline. Gibson came through the American Tennis Association, then forced the big events to take her. She is not a symbol who happened to play. She is a champion who made the symbol expensive to ignore.

Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters walk a road she graded. 1957 is the year the most famous court in tennis handed a Black woman the plate and could not take the picture back.