Tennis legend Althea Gibson gets a unique honor in Harlem: her own street

In January 2019, Glenn Gilliam filed an application to have a street in Harlem named after Althea Gibson. That was the easy part. The challenge that followed was convincing 60% of the residents and 60% of the business owners to sign his petition to move the process forward.

“For some of the young people, they were disinterested because they didn’t know who Althea Gibson was,” Gilliam said. “We set up easels with big posters of Althea, approached people on the street and it took all the spring and into the summer for us to get the signatures.” Read More