Being champion is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown.
I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it's half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me.
I don't want to be put on a pedestal. I just want to be reasonably successful and live a normal life with all the conveniences to make it so.
In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.
Most of us who aspire to be tops in our fields don't really consider the amount of work required to stay tops.
No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helps you.
No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.
Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.
In 2000, Althea was put at No.30 in Sports Illustrated for Women's list of "100 Greatest Female Athletes".
Althea was inducted into the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.
In 1984, Althea was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
Althea served on the New Jerseys State Athletics Control Board from 1985 until 1988.
Her autobiography is called Born to Win: The Authorized Autobiography of Althea Gibson.
Althea appeared in the movie The Horse Soldiers ,in 1959.
Althea is sometimes called the "Jackie Robinson of tennis" for her part in futhering racial equality in the sport.
Althea is buried at Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, New Jersey.
Althea was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1975.
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