Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka Are Following in Lucy Diggs Slowe’s Footsteps

Naomi Osaka’s recent victory at the Australian Open, which made her one of only seven players, male or female, to earn four Grand Slam titles,

solidifies her role as the clear heir to Serena Williams’s throne. And both champions, in consistently lending their voices to fighting gender discrimination and systemic racism,

are perhaps unknowingly continuing the legacy of the first Black woman to ever win a national tennis title, Lucy Diggs Slowe.

After decades of Black players being barred from professional tennis, a group of Black businessmen, professors, and doctors formed the American Tennis Association (ATA). The next year, Slowe won the ATA’s first women’s title, making her the first Black woman to win a national title in any sport.

Despite her athletic gifts, Slowe concentrated her efforts on higher education, eventually becoming Howard University’s dean of women — the first Black woman to hold that position at any American college.

She fought for education reform and used her influence to promote racial equity, a prominent role for Black women in the women’s suffrage movement, and peace activism.

She also helped organize the National Council of Negro Women and helped found the National Association of College Women, serving as its first president.