Charging the Net

by Harris, Cecil

• ISBN13: 9781566637145
• ISBN10: 1566637147
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-01
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee

Summary

People of all hues used to look askance at a black person on a tennis court, racquet in hand. "Are you trying to be white?" the player would hear. "Why do you want to play that sissy sport?" Yet despite tennis's country-club roots, blacks in America have played "the gentlemanly game" since the late nineteenth century.... The American Tennis Association, which consists of member clubs throughout the United States and the Caribbean, used to be the only place where blacks could play tennis and become champions. The ATA was not to tennis what the Negro Leagues were to baseball, because the ATA is still here....

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Introduction	p. 3
"There is no African-American culture in tennis"	p. 9
"I'm not going to be who you want me to be"	p. 25
"I'm not giving anything else away"	p. 46
"He was exactly who we needed at the time"	p. 76
"We were the only show in town"	p. 106
"You tell me what the similarity is"	p. 124
"It was as if God handed these two young girls to me"	p. 140
"Tennis is a family sport"	p. 155
"You niggers gotta get off the court"	p. 169
"Nobody called me names on the court, but nobody rooted for me either"	p. 182
"You could play the French Open and never really see Paris"	p. 199
"It's nice not to have to be a fly in milk"	p. 211
"We need you out here"	p. 224
Afterword	p. 237
ATA Singles Champions	p. 239
World-Ranked Black Tennis Players	p. 244
Bibliography	p. 247
Index	p. 257
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