Who was the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam Tennis Title?

The first African American woman to win a Grand Slam Tennis Title was Althea Gibson. Ms. Gibson was an American tennis player and professional golfer; she was one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American Woman to win a Grand Slam title (the French Open Championships).

Althea Gibson was born on August 25, 1927 in Silver, South Carolina, USA. She died of respiratory failure on September 28, 2003 in East Orange, New Jersey. Some years prior to her death, she suffered a stroke and developed serious heart problems. She was one of the few American tennis player who dominated women's competition in the late 1950s. She was truly awesome; she was the first black player to win the French (1956), Wimbledon (1957–58), and the U.S. Open (1957–58) singles championships. She got her wins while she was continuously fighting racism and prejudice. These two items were then widespread in sports and in America.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971, and later in 1976 she served as Commissioner of Athletics for the state of New Jersey, USA. In the last decades of her life, before she became extremely ill, she ran multiple clinics and other tennis outreach programs where she coached numerous rising tennis competitors, including Leslie Allen and Zina Garrison.