Black Females in Sports Leave Lasting Legacy
February 24, 2016
Lucy Diggs Slowe Lucy Diggs Slowe entered in the American Tennis Association’s first national tournament in 1917. She won the tournament title, becoming the first African American women to win a major sports title. Slowe was also a 17-time tennis champion. She attended Howard University and created the first junior high school in the Washington D.C. school system. Althea Gibson Harlem, New York was the first place where Althea Gibson learned how to play paddle tennis. In 1943, she won the New York State Negro Girls Singles title. Gibson became the first African American to play in Wimbledon in 1950.