US OPEN 2007 Day 1: Celebration of Blackness

Day 1 of the 2007 US Open night session was devoted to a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Althea Gibson's victory as the first African American athlete to win the U.S. Open. Craig has more details and fabulous pictures. In addition, numerous African American women who had accomplished firsts (first African American female U.S. Senator, first Afican American female Astronaut, first African American female elected mayor of a major U.S. city, etc etc).

After that the two must successful African American female tennis players since Althea Gibson, Venus Williams and Serena Williams came out and won their first round matches easily, in an awesome display of power and glamour that honored the great champion who paved the way for their success: Althea Gibson. Amazingly, African Americans Donald Young and Asha Rolle managed to win their first Grand Slam matches ever on the same day USTA decided to (finally) honor the tennis accomplishments of this fellow African American by inducting her into the celebrated Court of Champions.