Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson
Ashley Brown
Oxford University Press
Brown narrates the public career and private struggles of Althea Gibson, setting the most famous Black sportswoman of the mid-20th century's life and choices against the backdroup of the Great Migration, Jim Crow racism, the integration of American sports, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and second wave feminism.
Throughout her life Gibson continuously negotiated the expectations of her supporters and adversaries. An incredibly talented, ultra-competitve, and not always likeable athlete, Gibson wanted to be treated as an individual first and foremost, not as a member of a specific race or gender.
A compelling life and time portrait, Serving Herself offers a revealing look at the rise and fall of a fiercely independent trailblazer who satisfied her own needs and simultaneously set a pathbreaking course for Black athletes.