Latest / The Breakfast Club / A day at the US Open! 75 years since the 1st black tennis player in a major match, Althea Gibson.

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A day at the US Open! 75 years since the 1st black tennis player in a major match, Althea Gibson. · The Breakfast Club

0:02
Speaker 1: I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything,
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Speaker 1: and everybody don't know if you don't.
0:07
Speaker 2: Lie about that.
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Speaker 1: Right, Hey, y'all, what's up. It's Laura l Rosa. This
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Speaker 1: is the Latest with Laura l.
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Speaker 3: Rosa.
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Speaker 1: This is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news,
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Speaker 1: and all of the exclusives that shake the room. Speaking
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Speaker 1: of rooms, today I had the amazing opportunity to attend
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Speaker 1: the US Open here in New York. It was in
0:30
Speaker 1: Queens and oh my god, what a day with a day,
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Speaker 1: with a day with a day. So first of all,
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Speaker 1: I just want to say I talk about it a
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Speaker 1: lot here and everywhere I go. Being a part of
0:41
Speaker 1: the HBCU alumni conversation has not only been like an
0:45
Speaker 1: eye opener to me, but it's been it's really been
0:48
Speaker 1: like a life experience and like a game changer for me.
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Speaker 1: So today I was able to go to the US
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Speaker 1: Open and celebration of all things HBCU historically Black College
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Speaker 1: and University, but also in spirit and honor of ALTHEA.
1:02
Speaker 1: Gibson is Authia Gibson. So Monday would have been her
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Speaker 1: ninety eighth birthday, but this week this year actually celebrates
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Speaker 1: seventy five years since Althea Gibson made her debut in
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Speaker 1: what would have been now the US Open, but it
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Speaker 1: was called something different back then. But seventy five years ago,
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Speaker 1: she became the first black tennis player to play in
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Speaker 1: a major tennis competition. Now, since then, of course, the
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Speaker 1: sport has grown. But if you think about, you know
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Speaker 1: what you think about when it comes to tennis and
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Speaker 1: black tennis. I think, for all of us, the first
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Speaker 1: thing we think of Venus and Serena Williams one hundred
1:35
Speaker 1: percent their story, their trials, their tribulations, their critiques, the
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Speaker 1: hatred they got, the ups that we've seen them celebrate,
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Speaker 1: the barriers they've broken, all of the things. But Athia
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Speaker 1: Gibson was you know, she is the originator of black
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Speaker 1: woman on a tennis court, showing y'all how to get
1:50
Speaker 1: it done.
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Speaker 3: Now here's the thing.
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Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of coverage of the fact
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Speaker 1: that the US Open would be even paying tribute to
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Speaker 1: her because a lot of people feel like this.
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Speaker 3: Was well, well, well, well well overdo a lot.
2:02
Speaker 1: Of people, even in the headlines and in the reporting
2:04
Speaker 1: of this celebration or celebratory year for the US Open
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Speaker 1: and honoring Miss ALTHEA. Gibson are reporting this as they've
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Speaker 1: finally broken their silence or they've finally given just due
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Speaker 1: to a woman who literally broke down doors or broke
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Speaker 1: racks tennis racks. That is for all of the black
2:21
Speaker 1: tennis players to come behind her. Tennis players of color,
2:24
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, but of course black tennis
2:26
Speaker 1: players to come behind her. Now, a lot of people
2:29
Speaker 1: will say the sport of tennis, and I mean a
2:31
Speaker 1: lot of people tone deaf enough to say this, will
2:35
Speaker 1: say that, you know, tennis is still a sport that
2:38
Speaker 1: is very much white. And when I say that, I
2:40
Speaker 1: don't mean like it's only for white people. I mean
2:43
Speaker 1: the conversations and you know, a lot of the major
2:46
Speaker 1: tennis players over the years, it's been it's almost like
2:50
Speaker 1: a I wouldn't even say it's a unicorn anymore. But
2:52
Speaker 1: you can right now in your mind think about the
2:55
Speaker 1: major black tennis players, both men and women, and probably
2:58
Speaker 1: name them because we hear about the same ones all
3:00
Speaker 1: the time. That does not mean that they're not more.
3:02
Speaker 1: You know, young rising fire black tennis players all across
3:07
Speaker 1: the nation, all across the world. Right, But what I'm
3:09
Speaker 1: saying is when you think of mainstream tennis tournaments, people
3:12
Speaker 1: playing in those tournaments, competing at you know, these high
3:15
Speaker 1: levels being talked about by press. When it comes to
3:18
Speaker 1: the competitions and things of that nature, you can literally
3:21
Speaker 1: probably name the majors. It was such a big deal
3:24
Speaker 1: this year that Venus Williams actually returned to the US Open.
3:30
Speaker 1: She actually made history this year, returning to the US
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Speaker 1: Open as the oldest singles player in the tournament since
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Speaker 1: forty seven year old Renee Richards competed back in nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty one. Venus Williams is forty five years old. But
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Speaker 1: I mean, no matter her age, Like you know, Venus
3:44
Speaker 1: gets out there, she's gonna she got busy. She didn't advance,
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Speaker 1: but she did play at the top of the week.
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Speaker 1: The reason why I bring up Venus Williams, Serena Naomi
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Speaker 1: osaka Coco gov are because again, and I'm only bringing
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Speaker 1: up the women because y'all know, I am so like
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Speaker 1: brown girl grinding. But there's you know, there are men
4:00
Speaker 1: as well that have been out here represented that are
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Speaker 1: also you know, very prevalent and present in the US
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Speaker 1: Open this year. But bringing them up is to make
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Speaker 1: the point that when we talk about major tournaments in tennis,
4:11
Speaker 1: there's always just a handful of US. So this year
4:14
Speaker 1: attending the US Open was such an eye opening experience
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Speaker 1: for me because there was a whole room full of
4:21
Speaker 1: people who looked like me, very successful in their careers,
4:24
Speaker 1: professionals across all genres from entertainment both on camera behind
4:27
Speaker 1: the camera, to business, politics, sports, all of the things,
4:31
Speaker 1: and we were all brought together to extend this experience.
4:34
Speaker 1: Some of the people that I, you know, got to
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Speaker 1: meet today, got to see today. Monica McNutt. I didn't
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Speaker 1: get to meet her, or it was brief. I just
4:42
Speaker 1: need to sit a bag down at the table she
4:44
Speaker 1: was at. But Monica McNutt, she also hosted a panel
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Speaker 1: that was HBCU based and they you know, had a
4:50
Speaker 1: conversation prior to a lot of the matches beginning. Evonna
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Speaker 1: Rigi Molly from Insecure was also there as well too.
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Speaker 1: Didn't get a chance to see Venus on the court
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Speaker 1: at all, but this year, in one of her opening matches,
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Speaker 1: she did pay tribute to Miss Authia Gibson. She wore
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Speaker 1: the white polo collared style shirt with the white tennis
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Speaker 1: skirt which is there's so many iconic photos of Auttha
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Speaker 1: Gibson in this outfice, So it was a nod to her,
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Speaker 1: very timely, very on brand, very you know, it made
5:19
Speaker 1: sense for what this year is. But also those photos
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Speaker 1: were all around the venue today, like everywhere you turned,
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Speaker 1: you could not escape see miss Authia Gibson. It was
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Speaker 1: so black and so brilliant to that at the US Open. Lord,
5:31
Speaker 1: I am just I'm so happy to be Gang. I
5:34
Speaker 1: am just so happy to be Gang. Shout out to
5:37
Speaker 1: Melissa Butler from the Lip Bar. We had talked to
5:41
Speaker 1: her on Breakfast Club and then you know, so I
5:44
Speaker 1: met her there but ran into her today. She was
5:46
Speaker 1: also part of the HBCU Live initiative that was you know,
5:50
Speaker 1: the They were kind of like our chaperones today. They
5:53
Speaker 1: welcomed us into the US Open and made sure we
5:56
Speaker 1: had a good time.
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Speaker 3: But it was just fired.
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Speaker 1: I didn't even know that the US Open and had
6:00
Speaker 1: an HBCU initiative at all. Number one and number two
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Speaker 1: to be there this year, celebrating and honoring seventy five
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Speaker 1: years since Athia Gibson walked onto the you know court
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Speaker 1: in the Majors with all these people who look like
6:14
Speaker 1: me that are celebrating breaking barriers and the careers that
6:17
Speaker 1: they are in. Man, it was just fire like it was.
6:20
Speaker 2: It was.
6:20
Speaker 3: It was amazing.
6:21
Speaker 1: So upon entry coming in to the US Open, everywhere
6:26
Speaker 1: you turned there was artwork. You had a lot of
6:30
Speaker 1: It was like silhouette ish and I didn't know it
6:33
Speaker 1: was like very silhouette. It was very like. There were
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Speaker 1: carve outs. There was a statue of Miss Athia Gibson.
6:42
Speaker 1: Everywhere you turned there were like different quotes because the
6:45
Speaker 1: actual theme itself was celebrating seventy five years or breaking barriers,
6:49
Speaker 1: so there were a lot of quotes circulating. Even like
6:52
Speaker 1: the Arthur Ash tennis area that we were in where
6:55
Speaker 1: a lot of the main matches went down, that saying
6:58
Speaker 1: was everywhere. It was, you know, on and all of
7:00
Speaker 1: the boards. The jumbo trons hersilhouette was there as well too.
7:03
Speaker 1: There were photos along the walls. There was like a
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Speaker 1: comic book at one point that was being given out.
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Speaker 1: There was merch as well, but I didn't know. You
7:10
Speaker 1: can see the pictures of miss Gibson, and of course
7:14
Speaker 1: you know it's her, but when you're seeing when you
7:16
Speaker 1: first walk in and you're seeing all these silhouettes and
7:18
Speaker 1: you know, all the things. I didn't really know what
7:20
Speaker 1: I was looking at. And then I did some digging
7:23
Speaker 1: the artists who actually made all of the artwork for
7:26
Speaker 1: this year. Her name is Melissa Kobe. So Melissa Kobe.
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Speaker 1: She is the first black themed artist in the history
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Speaker 1: of the US Open.
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Speaker 3: Look when I walking.
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Speaker 1: Into the US Open today, the first area that I
7:40
Speaker 1: went to was like an area where you could like eat,
7:43
Speaker 1: and there were bars, and everybody was like, you know,
7:45
Speaker 1: talking and fellowship and and vibing and taking pictures. And
7:50
Speaker 1: I walked out was there by myself. So I literally
7:51
Speaker 1: sat at the table with a bunch of people I
7:53
Speaker 1: did not know. But it felt like home. It felt
7:56
Speaker 1: like homecoming. It was out my mind blown. The last
8:01
Speaker 1: time I attended the US Open, I think I was
8:02
Speaker 1: about ten or eleven years old. I went with one
8:05
Speaker 1: of my tennis camps. I played tennis for a couple
8:06
Speaker 1: of years. I went with a tennis camp and I
8:10
Speaker 1: forget which sister it was, but one of the William's
8:12
Speaker 1: sisters were actually playing.
8:13
Speaker 3: That's why they took us. They wanted us to see
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Speaker 3: her on the tennis court.
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Speaker 1: We were a tennis camp of a bunch of young
8:20
Speaker 1: kids from the inner city, all black, of course, and
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Speaker 1: I remember what it felt like to see her on
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Speaker 1: the court and see all of the people cheering and
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Speaker 1: all of the ooh.
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Speaker 3: Like all of that, all the things. Right.
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Speaker 1: So to be back now, thirty three years old walking
8:36
Speaker 1: into this you know, arena with all of these other
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Speaker 1: HBCU and black because not even people that just went
8:42
Speaker 1: to HBCUs, but just black people in general, it was
8:46
Speaker 1: just it was deaf.
8:47
Speaker 3: It was it was I can't I don't even know.
8:49
Speaker 1: If I'm describing it to you guys well enough, but
8:51
Speaker 1: it was such an experience. Now, one of the things
8:54
Speaker 1: that I thought was fire today that was also laid
8:56
Speaker 1: out was there were these comic books. So there was
9:00
Speaker 1: books that were actually made by Marvel in celebration of ALTHEA. Gibson,
9:04
Speaker 1: which were also things that you could purchase, and you know,
9:07
Speaker 1: they were being giving given away at some different locations
9:10
Speaker 1: as well to today. But I also got to do
9:12
Speaker 1: the coin toss. I got to do the coin toss
9:15
Speaker 1: on the second match. It was Taylor Fritz versus Lloyd Harris,
9:19
Speaker 1: and this was within the Lewis Armstrong Stadium, so it
9:22
Speaker 1: wasn't in the main stadium. It was in like a
9:24
Speaker 1: side stadium. But that was fire as well. And then
9:26
Speaker 1: I want to go watch some of the other matches. Now,
9:28
Speaker 1: let me tell y'all. Amongst my coin tossed peers was
9:33
Speaker 1: Gladys Knight. Now, we had been covering a story or
9:37
Speaker 1: I'd been covering a story over on the Breakfast Club
9:39
Speaker 1: and just following a bit the story of Gladys Knight
9:42
Speaker 1: and her son alleging that she is being taking advantage
9:45
Speaker 1: of mentally and physically by you know, someone that she
9:50
Speaker 1: is currently in a relationship with, and also alleging that
9:53
Speaker 1: she should not be on the road touring. Let me
9:55
Speaker 1: tell y'all something, Okay, I didn't get a chance to
9:57
Speaker 1: have any words with Mss Gladys Knight because I I
10:00
Speaker 1: was watching the match that she actually came out and
10:02
Speaker 1: through the coin toss for. But I have video of her,
10:03
Speaker 1: so make sure you guys go check the video out.
10:06
Speaker 1: I'll be posting it to the Brown Girl Grinding Instagram.
10:09
Speaker 1: She looked fine to me. She was there, she did
10:12
Speaker 1: they brought her out, she did the coin toss. She
10:14
Speaker 1: was very alert, very aware, she knew what was going on.
10:18
Speaker 1: Waving to the crowd. All of the things, Like she
10:20
Speaker 1: walked out on her own. She didn't have like handlers
10:22
Speaker 1: with her and stuff like that. I mean, she is
10:24
Speaker 1: an older woman. Also she's glad at night, so she
10:26
Speaker 1: did have handlers with her. But she walked out on
10:29
Speaker 1: her own. It wasn't like she needed to be directed
10:31
Speaker 1: where to go, as if she was just completely lost
10:33
Speaker 1: and didn't know direction anymore. She you know, was interacting
10:37
Speaker 1: with the tennis players. They took a photo because you
10:39
Speaker 1: do a photo after you do your coin toss, and
10:42
Speaker 1: on her way out, she even stopped it did a
10:43
Speaker 1: little dance like she knew she was so well aware
10:47
Speaker 1: of what was going on, and you know, the fans
10:49
Speaker 1: and the audience is stopping and looking around and making
10:52
Speaker 1: sure she got to everybody when it came to waving
10:54
Speaker 1: to the fans. Because the way that the tennis matches
10:56
Speaker 1: are set up, the seating kind of comes down on
10:58
Speaker 1: the incline and then at the bottom of the incline
11:01
Speaker 1: is the tennis court.
11:02
Speaker 3: So she's looking up at all the.
11:03
Speaker 1: Fans and like waving in one area, making sure she
11:06
Speaker 1: turns around the waves to another area. Working the stage,
11:09
Speaker 1: she looked fine to me. Now, granted, you know, I
11:12
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to talk to her. I'm not
11:14
Speaker 1: spending days with her. I'm not you know whatever. I'm
11:16
Speaker 1: just telling you guys what I saw with my own eyes.
11:18
Speaker 1: She looked good, and when I saw when I heard
11:21
Speaker 1: them announce her, I expected to kind of be like,
11:24
Speaker 1: you know, maybe like to see her be fully guided
11:27
Speaker 1: out and not be able to understand which way she's
11:29
Speaker 1: supposed to turn and all the things because of the reports,
11:33
Speaker 1: because of the recent you know, documents that her son
11:35
Speaker 1: filed down into Carolina stating that, you know, she's just
11:38
Speaker 1: kind of being put in positions right now that aren't
11:40
Speaker 1: fair to an older woman who's, as he alleges, like,
11:43
Speaker 1: basically out of it and should be home relaxing. Oh baby, No,
11:45
Speaker 1: Miss Gladys Knight was on point. She was not to
11:47
Speaker 1: be played with. The day honey looked amazing as well,
11:50
Speaker 1: but she was giving Superstar very much. So now as
11:54
Speaker 1: we wrap this, I just want to say, the whole
11:56
Speaker 1: point of spending the time telling you guys about today
11:59
Speaker 1: was because as of twenty twenty three, there has been
12:01
Speaker 1: a twenty percent rise in black people in the sport
12:06
Speaker 1: of tennis per NBC News, right, And what I want
12:09
Speaker 1: us to do is I want us to take more
12:11
Speaker 1: time to like I'm guilty of this as well. Like
12:15
Speaker 1: I got a chance to go and watch Cocoa Golf
12:18
Speaker 1: on one of the practice courts, and I was probably
12:21
Speaker 1: watching her for about maybe like all of ten to
12:23
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. I just wanted to see her with my
12:26
Speaker 1: own eyes in person because I report on her so much.
12:29
Speaker 3: I report on nam yo Osaka so much.
12:31
Speaker 1: But what I realize is that you know every now
12:33
Speaker 1: and then, you know, you report like the big wins
12:36
Speaker 1: that they do, right, so when they're making these history
12:39
Speaker 1: breaking wins and all the things. But I'm like, Yo,
12:42
Speaker 1: I might really in tune with their game for real
12:45
Speaker 1: and following their game for real. And I think anytime
12:49
Speaker 1: you see a person that is breaking barriers, whether it's
12:52
Speaker 1: a black person, person of color, you know, a woman
12:55
Speaker 1: no matter what her skin color is, but a woman
12:57
Speaker 1: anybody who is you know, at a deficit or perceived
13:01
Speaker 1: because these we we are not a deficite baby. We
13:03
Speaker 1: are showing up and showing out, but we sometimes are
13:05
Speaker 1: perceived that way. I'm always rooting for, you know, people
13:09
Speaker 1: that are that are put in a position where people
13:11
Speaker 1: underestimate what they can do because of whatsoever, and a
13:14
Speaker 1: lot of times it's because of race and what all
13:16
Speaker 1: of the microaggressions that come with that, especially black women, right.
13:20
Speaker 1: I mean black men have their thing too, but I
13:21
Speaker 1: personally can only speak to as a Black woman with
13:24
Speaker 1: those are because I've experienced them. But I was sitting
13:27
Speaker 1: there and I'm just thinking, like I know so much
13:30
Speaker 1: about their personal lives, all their business, all their tea,
13:33
Speaker 1: but I don't really know much about their game.
13:36
Speaker 3: I don't know much.
13:36
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't run down what Coco technique is, where
13:39
Speaker 1: she's strong at on the court and all those things.
13:41
Speaker 1: And I'm like, hmm, I don't know if that's really fair,
13:44
Speaker 1: laur Like, if you're seeing you out here and you
13:46
Speaker 1: support in and you repping and it's you know, us
13:48
Speaker 1: open HBCU, all things black, and you know all the things.
13:52
Speaker 1: Imagine if someone only ever talked about miss Althea Gibson
13:57
Speaker 1: because of the drama she experienced and all the great
14:00
Speaker 1: things she did, not all of the you know, matches
14:03
Speaker 1: she won, not all of the barriers she broke. Where
14:05
Speaker 1: would that leave space for any of these black women
14:08
Speaker 1: or black players that you were here so excited to
14:11
Speaker 1: see and support today. So I'm challenging, challenging us to
14:14
Speaker 1: do better. I'm challenging myself to do better. I even
14:16
Speaker 1: told myself, like, you know, next year, you know when
14:18
Speaker 1: the US Open comes, especially when it comes to supporting
14:22
Speaker 1: all of the black athletes, and I'm unapologetically always rooting
14:26
Speaker 1: for everybody black. I want to spend more time at
14:27
Speaker 1: the US Open actually diving into the matches. I was
14:30
Speaker 1: so in and out today because I, you know, worked
14:32
Speaker 1: this morning. But I want to do more, do better.
14:34
Speaker 1: But I want you guys to take a listen really
14:36
Speaker 1: quick as we wrap to Venus Williams talking about miss
14:40
Speaker 1: Althia Gibson and the impact that she had on her life.
14:44
Speaker 4: I had an opportunity to feel proud who who I was,
14:47
Speaker 4: who I am because of people like Altha. Of course,
14:50
Speaker 4: there's different kinds of ways you're perceived or sometimes treated
14:54
Speaker 4: because of the color of your skin, but it never
14:56
Speaker 4: stopped me.
14:57
Speaker 1: And I also want you guys to take a listen
14:58
Speaker 1: to Coco go Off talking about the Agipson and the
15:02
Speaker 1: impact their.
15:03
Speaker 2: First three tennis players are new for Serena and Venus
15:06
Speaker 2: and Anthia Gibson. You know, my dad always looked up
15:08
Speaker 2: to Althea. It was important for him to educate me
15:11
Speaker 2: as a black woman. She had to face like real
15:14
Speaker 2: pressure of just brutal like racism, and I'm very grateful
15:19
Speaker 2: for her.
15:19
Speaker 3: After matches, I do get.
15:20
Speaker 2: Some some crazy stuff, but mine. Yeah, online, did Venus
15:25
Speaker 2: or Serena ever give you advice on how to deal
15:28
Speaker 2: with some of the vitriol? Yeah? Venus always. I played
15:32
Speaker 2: doubles with her once and you know, she just said,
15:34
Speaker 2: be authentically yourself and.
15:35
Speaker 1: Keeping you representation matters. And I know that that it
15:38
Speaker 1: sounds so cliche, but I literally to this day, sometimes randomly,
15:43
Speaker 1: whenever I hear any of the Williams sisters' names, remember
15:47
Speaker 1: being a kid sitting in the stands and watching them
15:52
Speaker 1: play at the US Open and looking around at the
15:55
Speaker 1: crowd and realizing, like, I don't know exactly what I
15:57
Speaker 1: want to do. Maybe tennis is not it, but the
16:00
Speaker 1: way that they are captivating and entertaining and you know,
16:05
Speaker 1: and being like, you know, they got their braids, like
16:07
Speaker 1: they're black girls doing it.
16:09
Speaker 3: I want to do this.
16:10
Speaker 1: And now years later, I'm here, I'm at the US Open,
16:14
Speaker 1: and you know, we're celebrating breaking barriers and you know
16:20
Speaker 1: all the things. So cheers to you know, seventy five
16:23
Speaker 1: years since ms Athia Gibson walked on that court in
16:27
Speaker 1: that tennis match and showed the world it's not about
16:29
Speaker 1: your skin color. But if we're gonna talk about it,
16:31
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you guys something to talk about. I'm
16:34
Speaker 1: Laura la Rosa. This is the latest with Laurnoza. This
16:36
Speaker 1: has been a special episode straight from the US Open
16:39
Speaker 1: and all of the things. I also did an interview
16:41
Speaker 1: with the US Open. We're trying to track that down now.
16:45
Speaker 1: It was live, so it was love to tape, so
16:47
Speaker 1: we're trying to get that. When I get that, I'll
16:49
Speaker 1: make that a bonus episode for you guys. And yeah,
16:52
Speaker 1: I'll be back our next episode with all of the
16:54
Speaker 1: news run down.
16:56
Speaker 3: I'll see you guys in the next episode.
16:57
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, y'all know, there's always
16:59
Speaker 1: a lot that's talk about and y'all could be anywhere
17:01
Speaker 1: with anybody talking about it, but you choose to be
17:04
Speaker 1: right here daily, my lowriders.
17:06
Speaker 3: I appreciate you guys for that. See you in my
17:09
Speaker 3: next episode.