Althea Gibson

Althea won her ATA national tournament (http://www.bet.com/news/photos/2011/02/bhm11firstb (BET))

My hero is Althea Gibson. Althea Gibson was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Harlem, New York. She died on September 28th, 2003 due to respiratory failure. I consider Althea Gibson to be my hero because she's an extremely hard worker, she's respected by others, and she changed her actions. My favorite characteristic for her is how she changed her actions. That's my favorite because to me it's amazing how she just started to play a sport then her whole life turned around. In my opinion that's a real inspiration.

One reason why Althea Gibson is my hero is because she is an extremely hard worker. The characteristics that make her a hard worker is that she worked extremely hard to change her actions. She went from a troublemaker to an inspiring woman for kids like me who enjoy sports. Also every single day she would be on the tennis court for eight hour practicing tennis with her coach. She never stopped playing sports until she died. Most people stop playing sports when they are about 40 years old. That's not the case for Althea. Those are the characteristics that made her a hard worker.

Another reason why Althea Gibson is my hero is because she's respected by many other people. Many people respected her since she beat a white woman in the ATA national tennis tournament. Althea Gibson was also invited to the US National in Forest Hill, New York where she won the whole tournament. As a black woman playing in "white tournaments", and winning them is huge! She was invited to play a "white person sport" as a black woman. Those are the characteristics that made her respected by others

The final reason why Althea Gibson is my hero is because she changed her actions. Growing up as a kid Althea had very little interest in academics. Althea started skipping class and staying out all night at a very young age. She dropped out of high school. Her father whipped her a lot to try to make her stop. That had very little impact on her. In order for her to change her life around Althea got into sports and was able to make sports take over her life instead of being a troublemaker. Those are the characteristics that made her change her actions

In conclusion Althea Gibson is a real inspiration in my opinion. She was a hard worker, she changed her actions, and she's respected by her peers. In my opinion those three characteristics are true characteristics that make a person a hero. Also Althea performed the popular song called "I Can't Give You Anything But Love". Even when Althea was in her 70's she still played tennis with her trainer every single day. Now that's a true hero.