#blackgirlmagjic

[esheessentials-blog]

 Althea Gibson was born on August 25 th , 1927, in Silver, South Carolina. Sharecroppers, her parents left South Carolina, and settled in Harlem, NY in 1930 when she was three years-old.  As a child, Althea had a knack for causing problems getting into trouble at school, but she loved sports.  Growing up in Harlem, Althea often played paddle ball on barricaded streets, and at the age of 10 participated in a paddle ball competition hosted by the Police Athletic League (PAL), which she won. Over the next few years Althea perfected her paddle game at the recreation center and on street walls, and at the age of twelve she won the New York City women’s paddle tennis championship. Althea’s talent did not go unnoticed. The musician, Buddy Walker, was a recreation employee, who often saw Althea practicing and  convinced her to try using a tennis racket, which he bought the first one for her.  Convinced of her talent, in 1940, Walker took Althea to the interracial Cosmopolitan Tennis Club in Harlem and after playing a few sets she was sponsored a junior membership and lessons with tennis pro Fred Johnson. Only one short year later in 1941, at the age of 14, Gibson entered and won first tournament, the American Tennis Association’s New York State Championship. Consistent with the times, tennis was a segregated sport, and just as baseball had the Negro League, tennis had the American Tennis Association (ATA), the African American version of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA). She went on to win the ATA National Junior Championships in 1944 and 1945. After losing the Junior Championship in 1946, two active ATA members sponsored Althea to relocate to Wilmington, North Carolina, where she would live and attend school during the year, and intensive tennis training in Lynchburg, Virginia during the summer.  Wanting to give up while attending school in Wilmington, she happened to run into Sugar Ray Robinson, a friend from Harlem, who encouraged her to better herself.  Inspired by his words, Althea went on to win every event on the ATA schedule, and the first of 10 consecutive ATA national championships in 1947.  In 1949, after graduating high school, she entered Florida A&M University on a full athletic scholarship, which her successes in the ATA had earned her.  While attending Florida A&M University (FAMU). Althea Gibson accomplished several of her many first, the first being the first African American tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Championships in 1950 ( now the U.S. Open). In 1951, Gibson won her first international title, the Caribbean Championships in Jamaica, and later that year she would make history a second time, when she became the first African American ever invited to play at Wimbledon. After graduating Florida A&M University in 1953, Gibson took a job teaching physical education at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri; however,  she continued her tennis competitions and in 1955 she was chosen as one of four American women by  the U.S. State Department to go on a goodwill tour of Asia.  Remaining abroad after this tour, Gibson went on to win sixteen of eighteen tours in Europe and Asia, and in 1956 she would again make history.  In 1956, she made history at the French Championships (now known as the French Open by becoming the first African American to win the singles and doubles’ title there and later in 1956 won the doubles at Wimbledon.  Althea went on to make history yet again on July 6, 1957. Seeded first at Wimbledon in 1957, she became the first African American in the tournament's 80-year history to win the women’s singles tennis title and the first African American to win a championship at London’s All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.  She also won the doubles that year for the second year in a row, as well as, the U.S. singles and mixed doubles champion. In late 1958, after winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open again, with fifty-six national and international singles and doubles titles including eleven Grand Slam championships, Gibson retired from amateur tennis at the age of thirty-one. Tennis was not the only sport that Althea would  break down barriers in during her lifetime.  In 1964, Althea broke another barrier by becoming the first African-American women to join the LPGA ( Ladies Professional Golf Association) tour, which she played until 1971. On September 28, 2003 Althea Gibson died at the age of seventy-six in East Orange, New Jersey, and in 2013, the USPS honored Gibson with a commemorative stamp.

[esheessentials-blog]

On August 24, 1945, Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson was born.  A revolutionary, drag queen, sex worker, a performer, and activist, of all of the titles that Marsha P Johnson has held , the most iconic and legendary title will always be that of pioneer and trailblazer for transgender rights. From as early on as five years old, born Malcom Michaels , Marsha knew that she was different, and upon graduating from high school in 1963 she left NJ and headed to NY to live her life.  Although, the term transgender was not a term that was used in the 1960s, Marsha identified as a transvestite ,used the pronouns she/her, and for some time alternated between her given name, Malcolm, and a persona she had created, Black Marsha. Marsha legally changed her name after 1966, when she moved to Greenwich Village permanently, to Marsha P. Johnson.  As a 23 -year-old self-identifying as a  trans woman in the 1960s, the pivotal role she played in starting the Stonewall riots on June 28, 1969 solidified her place in history as a pioneer within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.  She went on to become one of the leaders of the Gay Liberation movement, and she also helped found the Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR). STAR, the first LGBTQ+ youth shelter in the U.S ran by trans women of color, was dedicated to providing housing to homeless and runaway transgender youth, In the 1980s, after being a caregiver, and later falling victim to HIV herself,  Marsha became an outspoken activist with  the AIDS advocacy organization, ACT UP up until her death. Tragically, Marsha “Pay it No Mind “ Johnson was murdered on July 6, 1992 at the age of 46, and her death was ruled a suicide after her body was found in the Hudson River.  To this day her death remains unsolved, however, it is believed that her death came at the hands of the same injustices that she fought do tirelessly throughout her lifetime to overcome. As of today in 2020, at least 28 people of trans-identity, both men and women, have lost their lives violently due to social injustice and intolerance, and their deaths have gone unnoticed. As transgender women of color continue to be the victims of violence across the country, it is painstakingly clear that there is so much more work to do to continue legacy of the iconic Marsha P Johnson . So on this day we Wish you a Happy 75 th Birthday and give thanks to you for the all of your selfless works in the  fight for equality and anti-discrimination, and as many march and protest across this nation declaring that Black Lives Matter,  let us remember your words: “ “You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.”  And remember that ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!   Peace, Love, and Light.