Althea 2014 Althea Gibson, a truant from the rough streets of Harlem, emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world of the 1950s Say the name Althea Gibson to most people and youll met a blank stare However, no player overcame more obstacles to become a champion, the first African American to play and win at Wimbledon and Forest Hills, a decade before the great Arthur Ashe, only to be shunned by the Tennis Establishment He roots as a sharecroppers daughter, her familys migration north to Harlem, her mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins and others, her fame that thrust her unwillingly into the glare of the early Civil Rights movement, all bring the story into a much broader realm of African American History