Althea Gibson is one of the foremost names in American tennis and in African American history. In a prejudiced, segregated society, and in the even more segregated world of tennis, she carved out a place for herself with her aggressive serve and volley game. She won four grand-slam tournaments and several international titles, in both singles and doubles. But in the United States of the 1950s and 1960s there were few financial rewards for a black woman athlete, and Gibson grew discouraged and reclusive. While her name is known and celebrated by many, few know of the poverty and obscurity in which she currently lives.

Gibson was born in August 1927 on a Silver, South Carolina, cotton farm, the oldest of five children. In 1930, her family moved to Harlem, where her aunt made a living selling bootleg whiskey. The difficulties of growing up on the...