champion. "Althea reoriented the world and changed our perceptions of what is possible," said Goulder. "We are still struggling. But she broke the ground." "I hope that I have accomplished just one thing", she said, in her 1958 retirement speech, "that I have been a credit to tennis, and to my country." "By all measures," reads the inscription on her Newark statue, "Althea Gibson certainly attained that goal." Movie Big Boy Films has acquired the life rights to Althea Gibson's life as well as Althea's memoir I Always Wanted To Be Somebody, the only authorized biography Born To Win by Francis Clayton Gray and Yannick Rice and has an exclusive partnership with The Gibson Estate to produce a feature film about Althea's life. The film is currently in development with EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Feuer producing a script currently written by Academy Award winner Geoffrey S. Fletcher. Grand Slam finals Singles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runner-ups) Key: (#) denotes her number of singles titles at the tournament at the time. Doubles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runner-ups) Key: (#) denotes her number of doubles titles at the tournament at the time. Mixed doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups) Grand Slam tournament performance timeline Singles Source: See also List of African American firsts Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final References Further reading Lansbury, Jennifer. A spectacular leap: black women athletes in twentieth-century America. University of Arkansas Press, 2014, Fayetteville. . Bibliography External links 1927 births 2003 deaths African-American golfers African-American tennis coaches African-American female tennis players American female golfers American female tennis players American autobiographers Australian Championships (tennis) champions Deaths from respiratory failure Florida A&M Lady Rattlers tennis players French Championships (tennis) champions Golfers from South Carolina Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Lincoln Blue Tigers coaches LPGA Tour golfers New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States People from Clarendon County, South Carolina People from Harlem Sportspeople from Manhattan Sportspeople from Wilmington, North Carolina Tennis players at the 1959 Pan American Games Tennis people from South Carolina United States National champions (tennis) Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) Burials at Rosedale Cemetery (Orange, New Jersey) Women autobiographers Professional tennis players before the Open Era