The American Tennis Association (ATA) is the oldest predominately African-American sports organization in the the United States. Founded in 1916 in Washington, D.C., the ATA will be holding its 90th National Championships in San Diego from Sunday, July 23, to Saturday, July 29.
“While the majority of our members are east of the Mississippi, we still like to move our national tournament around the country,” explained Willis S. Thomas Jr., president of the ATA from the association’s national office in Largo, Maryland. “We have members who look forward to this one event every year and it helps keep them in tennis.”
Approximately 1,000 adult and junior ATA members will compete in the week-long tournament, which includes instructional clinics, as well as singles and doubles play. The adult events will be held at the Mountain View Sports & Racquet Club.
The grand opening, all junior events, and the junior and adult finals will be held at the Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma.
“Unlike most major sporting events, we don’t charge an admission price so everyone is welcome to come watch the tennis,” said Point Loma resident Virginia Glass, who is the founder of the Mountain View Sports & Racquet Club, past president of the ATA and currently a board member. “We also have some type of social activity planned for each day which is also open to the public.”(There is a charge for those activities)
Glass put in a bid in 2003 to host the tournament this year, which has previously been held in San Diego in 1975 and 1982. Part of the reason for the bid was so the tournament can be on the west coast but also because of the financial impact.
“When the tournament was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the city officials estimated there was about $2 million generated for the local economy,” she said.
The tournament, however, carries far greater meaning than just one more event which brings in revenue to San Diego. The history behind the ATA is rooted deep into the issues of racial equality which have been and continue to be on our country’s social conscience..
Similar to most other sports, African-Americans were prohibited from playing in organized national tennis tournaments for the first half of the last century. Just as Jackie Robinson broke the racial barrier in baseball, the late Althea Gibson did so in tennis when in 1950 by the United States Lawn Tennis Association ” now the United States Tennis Association (USTA) ” accepted her entries into the National Clay Court Championships; the Eastern Grass Court Championships and the National Grass Court Championships.
Gibson and the late Arthur Ashe are two of many outstanding African-American tennis players who made their start in ATA events until they were allowed into the national sanctioned tournaments.
It is important to remember during that era African-Americans were often prohibited or restricted from using transportation services or staying overnight in hotels. So sometimes just getting to and competing in a tournament presented a challenge, Thomas said.
Even with the integration into the national tournaments, the ATA did not disappear from the tennis landscape. With memberships now open to people of all ethnic backgrounds, the ATA continues to endure and provide opportunities.
“More of our focus now is on helping kids and giving them the opportunity to travel and play tennis which they might not normally be able to do,” stated Thomas. “We do work closely with the USTA and function almost like an activist group by sharing the issues and challenges minorities may have in terms of being involved in tennis.”
Thomas, Glass and the organizers work hard to make sure there is a good balance between the fun and serious for their annual tournament. “It’s an organization which likes to get together, compete hard, play tennis, have fun and talk about issues,” said Thomas.