Great Lives

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Factual: Life Stories

Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.

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Great Lives: Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Althea Gibson

The first black tennis player to win Wimbledon is the choice of Professor Devi Sridhar.

Althea Gibson was the first black tennis player to win Wimbledon.  Professor Devi Sridhar champions her life. From 2021.

Althea Gibson made sporting history in 1957 - the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon title.  

She also won the US Open and the French Open.  

Raised on the streets of Harlem, her story is remarkable.  And yet she is relatively unknown.  

Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, champions Althea's life.

With writer Sally H Jacobs, who is writing a new biography of the tennis star.

Presenter:  Matthew Parris

Produced at BBC Audio in Bristol by Chris Ledgard.    

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2021.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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