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LOCATION
The Women's Museum
3800 Parry Avenue
Dallas, TX 75226
214.915.0860
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Exhibits : Permanent Collection : Breaking Boundaries
BREAKING BOUNDARIES
Thanks to the courageous women on the front lines of change, one by one, obstacles to women's progress have been removed and barriers smashed. Today, young women everywhere believe the sky's the limit in the world of achievement. This tribute honors the women who would stop at nothing to accomplish their goals, and whose valiant efforts made possible the vast choices we now enjoy.
Sports and Adventure
Leveling the playing field - that is the hallmark of women's achievements in sport, aviation, aerospace, and adventure. These women broke aviation records, traveled to space, climbed the highest mountain, and triumphed in every sport from track to hockey. Along the way, they opened doors for other women and proved beyond a doubt that women are strong and agile. The exhibit features larger-than-life playing cards of famous athletes and highlights the differences between male and female sports and equipment.
Althea Gibson (1927-2003)
Born in South Carolina and raised in Harlem during the Great Depression, Althea Gibson learned the harsh realities of racism and poverty first-hand. She began her amateur tennis career in the early 1940's, winning the all-black American Tennis Association's New York State Tournament ten years in a row, 1947 to 1956. Gibson was one of the leading women in amateur tennis during the 1950's. She broke the color barrier of the American Lawn Tennis league in 1950 after Alice Marble (a white player) stood up for her rights.
"I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it's half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me."
In 1951, Gibson became the first African American invited to enter Wimbledon. Gibson won the French and Italian titles in 1956. In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black player to win at Wimbledon, singles and doubles titles, and the US Open, earning Gibson the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year honors (first black female to obtain the honor). She repeated her accomplishments at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1958. Gibson was inducted into the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, International Tennis Hall of Fame, Black Athletes Hall of Fame, and the International Sports Hall of Fame for a groundbreaking tennis career.
Like Jackie Robinson, she had no one to pave the way for her, but rather she opened a path for others, such as Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters.
Organized Movements
From Jane Addams, the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to Rosa Parks, whose simple act of courage ignited the Civil Rights Movement, women have been at the forefront of social and political change in America. Certain causes have been invariably linked with the women's movement, from temperance to MADD, the Red Cross to the peace movement, women have challenged the status quo and asked the hard questions. In sweatshops and the fields, in tenement houses and battered women shelters, women have been leaders, pioneers, and willing to carry the torch when others could not.
Organized Movements showcases some of the most influential political and social movements of our era. Materials include items from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, anti-abortion-rights organizations, the National Organization for Women and more.