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Tuskegee Tennis Stars
Tuskegee's tennis greats honored
By Tom Ensey
Montgomery Advertiser
Before Serena and Venus Williams ruled women's tennis, there were Margaret and Roumania Peters, better known as "Pete" and "Re-Pete."
The Peters sisters won 14 national doubles titles -- from 1939 until the early 1950s -- a record that still stands. In the days of segregation, the Tuskegee graduates, originally from Washington, D.C., competed in the American Tennis Association, an organization that sponsored championships for blacks. Roumania won two ATA singles titles, in 1944 and 1946. For her second title, at the age of 28, she defeated a 17-year-old Althea Gibson, the African-American tennis great. Roumania was one of only two black women ever to beat Gibson, who would later win 11 Grand Slam events.
In 1950, Gibson broke the color barrier in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association's national championship at Forest Hills. The Peters' careers followed less dramatic paths. They became teachers and coaches.
In 1957, the year Gibson won both Wimbledon and the U.S. nationals, Roumania Peters quietly married longtime beau James Walker, a former mathematics professor at Tuskegee who shared her passion for tennis. He had been teaching at Illinois when he saw Roumania's picture on the cover of a tennis magazine. Smitten, he applied for a job at Tuskegee to meet her.
"And here we are," laughed Frances Walker Weeks, their daughter, who with older brother James and Margaret accepted an achievement award from the USTA during Saturday's Federation Cup quarterfinals in Washington, D.C. The sisters will be inducted into the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section Hall of Fame next November.
Weeks said she only regretted that her mother and father weren't there. Roumania died of penumonia last May, at the age of 85. Margaret, who is 88, never married. She is now gripped by Alzheimer's, but was present to accept the award.
"It means everything to me," Weeks said of the award. "My father and mother would have been so proud, my father especially. He was always so proud of Mom. He always told people my mom was a celebrity."
Celebrity
The sisters met movie stars and British royalty, said James Walker, who is a Washington D.C. attorney and pharmacist.
"Once, Gene Kelly was visiting D.C., and he had heard of them. So he looked up my aunt in Georgetown," he said. "He played tennis with my mother and my aunt. We have a picture of that. They played on a cruise ship before British royalty in the Bahamas."
Though they had a taste of fame, their unprecedented string of championships was won largely in obscurity, on the campuses of historically black colleges. There was little financial reward. In those days, tennis was an amateur sport, so they paid their own travel expenses and bought their own equipment.
They won their first doubles title in 1938, on a red-clay court at Tuskegee, which both attended on tennis scholarhip. Roumania, who graduated in 1941, also served as a physical education instructor at the school and went on to earn a master's degree in education from New York University. She taught at Howard University in Washington and in the D.C. city school system.
They won the ATA doubles titles from 1938-41, and from 1944-1953. The magnitude of the achievement came as a surprise even to John Collins, the president of the South Region of the ATA, which was founded in 1916 and still sponsors tournaments nationwide.
"These ladies were news to me," he said. "We did some tournaments in Tuskegee back in the 1980s, and they were honoring (Roumania and Margaret). We were able to compare our information with theirs, and we kind of said, 'Wow.'"
'A Perfect Story'
The Peters sisters grew up in Georgetown, across the street from a playground, within sight of the tennis courts. They taught themselves how to play. Weeks said they would risk their mother's wrath to get in a few sets.
"My mother told me that when she was little, her mother would tell them to sit on the porch, play on the porch, don't go off the porch," she said. "Then, the minute she went back in the house, they'd run down to the tennis courts."
She'd come out of the house, see them, and clap her hands, Weeks said. They'd head back home. But their passion paid off. They became the terrors of the neighborhood courts.
"They beat everybody," Weeks said. "Even the guys."
When Margaret graduated from high school, she was offered a scholarship by Tuskegee's athletic director Cleve Abbott. She didn't accept until three years later, when Roumania was offered a scholarship and they attended together, enrolling in 1937. They were inducted into Tuskegee's athletic hall of fame in 1977.
For more than 20 years, Roumania directed a tennis camp for the D.C. Department of Recreation, at the same court where she and her sister played when they were children. Her own children helped with the camp and played tennis there "every day," Weeks said.
"I grew up on a tennis court," said Weeks, who played tennis in high school, and split sets with Pam Shriver her junior year. Weeks and her brother played in junior tournaments, while her father, mother and aunt played in their age groups. Her parents played competitively until they were well into their 60s. she said.
Roumania started the camp without organized support, but it grew to be an important part of the Washington tennis community. She coached hundreds of players who might otherwise not have had a chance to learn the game she loved so much.
Though coaching and teaching youngsters in the Washington area was conducted completely out of the limelight, that's the part of the story that Collins finds inspiring. That the sisters found a way to develop their skills in an urban environment, and passed along their knowledge to kids who otherwise might not have been able to play tennis.
"It's a perfect story," he said, "the environment they came from, the doors they opened. It's what kids are still trying to do today."
The struggles are much the same, he said. Almost no high schools have tennis programs, he said, because of budget constraints. When there is a shortfall, tennis is usually the first thing to be cut. Most opportunities to play the game come from municipal recreation departments, he said. The ATA strives to work with those organizations make tennis available. The Peters are pioneers, and their example still inspires, he said.
"It shows our kids that there is a history, a foundation ... We are not reinventing the wheel," he said. "Tennis has been played and played well by black tennis players in the past. That gives us confidence to advance."
Tuskegee's tennis greats honored
By Tom Ensey
Montgomery Advertiser
Before Serena and Venus Williams ruled women's tennis, there were Margaret and Roumania Peters, better known as "Pete" and "Re-Pete."
The Peters sisters won 14 national doubles titles -- from 1939 until the early 1950s -- a record that still stands. In the days of segregation, the Tuskegee graduates, originally from Washington, D.C., competed in the American Tennis Association, an organization that sponsored championships for blacks. Roumania won two ATA singles titles, in 1944 and 1946. For her second title, at the age of 28, she defeated a 17-year-old Althea Gibson, the African-American tennis great. Roumania was one of only two black women ever to beat Gibson, who would later win 11 Grand Slam events.
In 1950, Gibson broke the color barrier in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association's national championship at Forest Hills. The Peters' careers followed less dramatic paths. They became teachers and coaches.
In 1957, the year Gibson won both Wimbledon and the U.S. nationals, Roumania Peters quietly married longtime beau James Walker, a former mathematics professor at Tuskegee who shared her passion for tennis. He had been teaching at Illinois when he saw Roumania's picture on the cover of a tennis magazine. Smitten, he applied for a job at Tuskegee to meet her.
"And here we are," laughed Frances Walker Weeks, their daughter, who with older brother James and Margaret accepted an achievement award from the USTA during Saturday's Federation Cup quarterfinals in Washington, D.C. The sisters will be inducted into the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section Hall of Fame next November.
Weeks said she only regretted that her mother and father weren't there. Roumania died of penumonia last May, at the age of 85. Margaret, who is 88, never married. She is now gripped by Alzheimer's, but was present to accept the award.
"It means everything to me," Weeks said of the award. "My father and mother would have been so proud, my father especially. He was always so proud of Mom. He always told people my mom was a celebrity."
Celebrity
The sisters met movie stars and British royalty, said James Walker, who is a Washington D.C. attorney and pharmacist.
"Once, Gene Kelly was visiting D.C., and he had heard of them. So he looked up my aunt in Georgetown," he said. "He played tennis with my mother and my aunt. We have a picture of that. They played on a cruise ship before British royalty in the Bahamas."
Though they had a taste of fame, their unprecedented string of championships was won largely in obscurity, on the campuses of historically black colleges. There was little financial reward. In those days, tennis was an amateur sport, so they paid their own travel expenses and bought their own equipment.
They won their first doubles title in 1938, on a red-clay court at Tuskegee, which both attended on tennis scholarhip. Roumania, who graduated in 1941, also served as a physical education instructor at the school and went on to earn a master's degree in education from New York University. She taught at Howard University in Washington and in the D.C. city school system.
They won the ATA doubles titles from 1938-41, and from 1944-1953. The magnitude of the achievement came as a surprise even to John Collins, the president of the South Region of the ATA, which was founded in 1916 and still sponsors tournaments nationwide.
"These ladies were news to me," he said. "We did some tournaments in Tuskegee back in the 1980s, and they were honoring (Roumania and Margaret). We were able to compare our information with theirs, and we kind of said, 'Wow.'"
'A Perfect Story'
The Peters sisters grew up in Georgetown, across the street from a playground, within sight of the tennis courts. They taught themselves how to play. Weeks said they would risk their mother's wrath to get in a few sets.
"My mother told me that when she was little, her mother would tell them to sit on the porch, play on the porch, don't go off the porch," she said. "Then, the minute she went back in the house, they'd run down to the tennis courts."
She'd come out of the house, see them, and clap her hands, Weeks said. They'd head back home. But their passion paid off. They became the terrors of the neighborhood courts.
"They beat everybody," Weeks said. "Even the guys."
When Margaret graduated from high school, she was offered a scholarship by Tuskegee's athletic director Cleve Abbott. She didn't accept until three years later, when Roumania was offered a scholarship and they attended together, enrolling in 1937. They were inducted into Tuskegee's athletic hall of fame in 1977.
For more than 20 years, Roumania directed a tennis camp for the D.C. Department of Recreation, at the same court where she and her sister played when they were children. Her own children helped with the camp and played tennis there "every day," Weeks said.
"I grew up on a tennis court," said Weeks, who played tennis in high school, and split sets with Pam Shriver her junior year. Weeks and her brother played in junior tournaments, while her father, mother and aunt played in their age groups. Her parents played competitively until they were well into their 60s. she said.
Roumania started the camp without organized support, but it grew to be an important part of the Washington tennis community. She coached hundreds of players who might otherwise not have had a chance to learn the game she loved so much.
Though coaching and teaching youngsters in the Washington area was conducted completely out of the limelight, that's the part of the story that Collins finds inspiring. That the sisters found a way to develop their skills in an urban environment, and passed along their knowledge to kids who otherwise might not have been able to play tennis.
"It's a perfect story," he said, "the environment they came from, the doors they opened. It's what kids are still trying to do today."
The struggles are much the same, he said. Almost no high schools have tennis programs, he said, because of budget constraints. When there is a shortfall, tennis is usually the first thing to be cut. Most opportunities to play the game come from municipal recreation departments, he said. The ATA strives to work with those organizations make tennis available. The Peters are pioneers, and their example still inspires, he said.
"It shows our kids that there is a history, a foundation ... We are not reinventing the wheel," he said. "Tennis has been played and played well by black tennis players in the past. That gives us confidence to advance."