The tennis star who found a trailblazing partner

Angela Buxton 1934–2020

Angela Buxton and Althea Gibson were among the top tennis talents of their era, but neither could secure a doubles partner ahead of the 1956 French Open. Buxton, a British Jew, and Gibson, an African-American, were outcasts in the genteel and mostly white sport. The pair decided to partner at Roland Garros and also faced off in the women’s singles semifinals. During the third set, Gibson’s bra strap broke, and Buxton embraced Gibson to protect her modesty in front of the hollering crowd. Gibson went on to win the match and the singles tournament, becoming the first black major champion. A day after that triumph, Gibson and Buxton won the doubles crown. “It never entered my head to do anything else except befriend her,” Buxton said of Gibson in 2006. “She was much warmer than the English people.” Buxton was born in Liverpool to a father who owned “a chain of cinemas,” said The Times (U.K.). To escape German bombing raids during World War II, Buxton evacuated to South Africa with her mother and brother. There she took up tennis and played hopscotch with the maid’s daughter; Buxton “was furious when she was told that white children could not play with black children.” After the war, Buxton became one of England’s top youth players, but anti-Semitism kept her out of elite clubs. In 1952, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, said The Washington Post, only to be denied membership at the Los Angeles Tennis Club “because they were Jewish.”

On a tennis tour of India in 1955, Buxton “noticed that Gibson was spending much of her time alone and befriended her,” said The Guardian (U.K.). They became an unbeatable doubles duo in 1956, winning the French championship and Wimbledon. Buxton retired in 1957—she went on to open a tennis academy in London— and Gibson put down her racket the following year. “The pair stayed in touch but had not spoken for a while when, in 1995, Buxton suddenly got a phone call from Gibson.” The American sounded suicidal, having become destitute after several major health crises. Buxton helped raise nearly $1 million for her friend, who was able to live in comfort until her death in 2003. Last year, Buxton attended the unveiling of a bust honoring Gibson at the site of the U.S. Open in New York City. “It’s about bloody time,” she said of the statue.