Serena Williams is a talisman for many Black women because the only lines she ever stayed within were on a tennis court. Even her presence there, at the time of her and her sister Venus’s debuts in the late 1990s, was radical, more than 40 years after Althea Gibson became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title.
Williams made the critics of her body, her fashion and her career choices look foolish because of her success: 23 Grand Slam trophies, a record in the Open era, and a record $94 million in career earnings. She and sister Venus opened a pipeline of diversity in tennis, making a once-hostile environment more hospitable. She endured racism, reached the mountaintop anyway, then planted herself there, breathing easy in the thin air.