Wilmington, NC -- February 8, 2019 -- GLOW Academy today announced it will name a building on its new middle and high school campus Gibson Hall honoring tennis legend Althea Gibson. GLOW Academy will move to its new and permanent campus at the start of the next school year. Currently under construction, the GLOW campus will have four buildings: an administrative building, middle school, high school and media center. It is not yet determined which building will be named Gibson Hall. The campus is near Maides Park and will eventually serve some 700 middle and high school students when it reaches full enrollment in the 2022/23 academic year.
Althea Gibson moved to Wilmington in 1946 to attend Williston High School and train privately with Dr. Hubert A. Eaton who served as her tennis coach. She went on to become the first African-American to win Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Doubles and the US Open in the late 1950’s. Her remarkable tennis career yielded nearly 100 professional titles including five Grand Slam crowns.
GLOW Academy students have previously honored Althea Gibson by lobbying the United States Tennis Association to erect a statue in her honor in Flushing Meadows, the home of the US Open. Led by their tennis instructor, Lenny Simpson of One Love Tennis, the girls learned about Ms. Gibson’s local history and athletic accomplishments and wrote letters to the USTA urging consideration of a statue in her honor. In February, 2018, the USTA informed the students that their letters made an impact and that a statue honoring Althea Gibson will be unveiled at the 2019 US Open.
ABOUT GLOW ACADEMY
The Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington is North Carolina's only single gender public charter school. With a focus on closing the achievement and opportunity gaps among low income families, the 6th thru 12th grade school is part of a nationwide network of 18 groundbreaking and successful single-gender schools. This Young Women’s Leadership Network is guided by a proven educational model focused on academic rigor, personal responsibility, leadership and college preparedness. At GLOW Academy, she will: graduate, go to college and succeed in life.