Every day I drive past it. The nets are still in place, but I can see cracks coming up from the concrete. Yet, there’s a wall in the corner. A practice wall, something that is highly coveted if you find yourself wanting to play the game alone and you already have your racket and ball.
I thought at first the court seemed semi-abandoned because no one in this area we live in is really into tennis. That despite the abundance of the Williams Sisters and all the women who followed, plus anyone who is motivated by that level of excellence and activity in a black or brown body, that the court would be used.
Yet, even I still drive past the court and walk into our apartment, past our closet with the rackets and I write off the court again. I can’t really judge anybody for not doing anything that I’m not willing to do myself.
However, I’m actually sitting right in the capital of black tennis.
The kind of tennis that requires a lawn or court, which is what the modern game and all tournaments have evolved into, had only just been patented by the Queen of England in 1874 and just two years later the first tennis tournament of any kind in the United States was held in Massachusetts. By 1880, the Lawn Tennis Association was formed and the first major national championship was held just a year later.
Meanwhile, while black folks were losing some of the rights they had gained in Reconstruction, they were able to establish institutions. Schools and colleges; churches; banks; tennis courts and country clubs, specifically in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and D.C.
The tennis clubs predated black professional organizations such as the National Medical Association, the National Bar Association, the National Baptist Convention, which has become the largest black-led denomination (and the one I was raised in), black-owned insurance companies and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), along with several organized anti-lynching efforts. Black national tennis tournament action pre-dates the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, the tournaments starting in 1898 and the anthem being written in 1900.
All of this and more history can be found right here on the Black Tennis History site, founded by Bob Davis. Les and I had a chance to talk to Mr. Davis recently, as he served on the panel at the March on Washington Film Festival’s Althea documentary screening.
He told us how he was connected to Althea Gibson, the African-American woman who broke the color barrier in U.S. tennis national championships. Then he harped on how important black tennis history was and also how connected it is to all history.
Basically, a taste of what I just gave you above, underscoring that tennis has been a thing in black communities, far longer than the dominance of the Williams Sisters. He also answered a question Les had about affordability of tennis and also joked that his parents, despite how other black community leaders made a way for him to play tennis, constantly asked him when he was getting a job.
PBS has the Althea documentary available to purchase and a trailer is still online there. The documentary goes into how she took advantage of Harlem’s Play Streets, and that network of wealthy African-Americans across the country who used tennis as recreation and as a form of uplift for youth, breaking the color barrier in competitive tennis, how she was received around the world and how unfortunately, she almost died destitute because of the pre-Open era restrictions on who could compete in tennis tournaments and how much they could make from tennis prize money.
Before Les and I left, we managed to snag panelist Leslie Allen, the first black woman since Althea Gibson to win a major adult national tennis championship and the first in the Open era (basically the merging of all competitive tennis, paid or not, into one big umbrella) and ask her how where she grew up influenced her playing of tennis. We were able to connect on having a racket in the house from birth, but as she mentioned several local D.C. area tennis courts, I felt a tinge of shame in not dusting off my own rackets and getting out to play.
Well, fall temperatures are supposed to be in D.C. throughout the week and I think it’s time Les and I both dusted off our rackets and gave our little tennis court that can a shot.
Finally, this is yet another reminder of how marginalized people will always find a way to create their own spaces, even when those spaces are denied. Not only should we be actively not taking away those spaces, but even when we (and sometimes that we is our kin and skinfolk) assumes that this isn’t happening, yet it is and sometimes better and brighter than what we think the solution can be. As we continue our march into equity in placemaking, may we never miss those shots and may we hit those serves with the utmost accuracy.
Welcome back to The Black Urbanist Weekly! We are on edition #4! This week was spent thinking about how tennis really is in the undercurrent of black life, and doing some brainstorming around my book and what my pitch deck will be when I go to my next Maynard 200 seminars in a few weeks. And yes, wishing Twitter would let me out of its jail. So far, I’ve determined that it doesn’t like some of the auto posts I do on this edition of the newsletter to make sure you all see it. But, between your inbox and Patreon, you’ll never miss any information and commentary from me.
Also, it’s my pleasure to repost Sophonie Milande Joseph’s special report Energy Justice: A Comparative Case Study of Decentralized Energy Planning Models in Rural Ayiti [Haiti] , which recently ran in the American Planning Association’s International Edition September newsletter Interplan, on the site. Folks who publish for academic and similar sources, please let me know if you would like a similar signal boost on the website.
The Patreon edition this week did more than come out first, it has the raw audio of the Althea panel discussion and our two interviews with Bob Davis and Leslie Allen. Plus, there are some extra job notes next to the job board reminder. Subscribe now for that and more future bonuses.
A few other things I consumed this week…
Still have not had the chance to watch, but I did want to include renowned architect and inspiration Phil Freelon’s celebration of life in this section this week.
I have more thoughts forthcoming on how libraries can be game-changers in maintaining community culture and lifelong learning. I’m also happy to see that it was the election and now leadership of Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot that was instrumental in removing several levels of library fines in the Chicago library system. However, as the article states, I’m concerned about how it took her being elected for this idea to happen and that there were folks waiting for years for something like this and in some cases giving up on the Chicago library system all together, because of the previous system.
This Boston conflict over the Harriet Tubman House isn’t alone in how we as black folks can disagree on how to use public space and how to go about our social justice work and even what really constitutes gentrification and cultural erasure.
In D.C. it’s well known that the rent and the mortgages and the property taxes are too damn high. And I’m not completely convinced that local governments are not complicit in this process. Evictions, high property taxes, tax abatements for developers and allowing certain communities to ban certain types of housing and others to just be leveled (sometimes under the guise of renewal). I do think shame works, but you have to understand what you’re supposed to be ashamed of and you have to admit you’re doing wrong too.
Also, progress being made, but still a long way to go in making sure people are aware of the challenges we face east of the Anacostia River and in similar communities that aren’t being heard, educated and funded adequately around not just non-auto transportation, but so many other things that would really put a dent in us needing and feeling the need to drive.
I did enjoy watching the Mixed-ish pilot episode and I do echo concerns raised that the show assumes that there wasn’t racism, sexism, classism and other issues inside communes However, kids do process things differently and we even see that with her own siblings on the show.
And you have to listen to Erika Alexander on The Nod and on Essence’s podcast Yes Girl!
Before you go…
—Check out the job board.
—Check out the stores on The Black Urbanist and Les’s Lighthouse . The holidays are coming and these will make great gifts!
— Want to add something to my calendar before year-end or get a jump on my spring schedule? book me for a lecture, workshop or both.
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