Althea and Angela
by Todd Olson

The Morristown Task Force will proudly present this play to Morristown on
February 25, 2023 at 1:00 at the WSCC Theatre

In 1955, Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton were world-ranked tennis players … yet no one wanted to partner with them in women’s doubles. In fact, few even wanted to talk with them. Post-War America was still very segregated and the tennis world was still very anti-Semitic. Eight years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line in major league baseball, the tennis world lagged behind, clinging to its country club roots. Althea, a black woman from Harlem, and Angela, a Jewish woman from Liverpool, were outcasts in two nations. So they decided to join forces outside their own country. What happened then made history. (Length app. 55 minutes)

January 31st – February 3, 2020

As an opening to Black History Month, Morristown’s Task Force on Diversity, Hamblen County Schools, From Africa to Appalachia and the Morristown Senior Center are partnering to bring Joan Browning to Morristown in a return visit, Ms. Browning was involved in sit-ins and was a Freedom Rider in 1961. Over a four day period, from January 31st – February 3, 2020, Ms Browning will visit several schools, Walters State Community College, 1st United Methodist Church and other gatherings at which she will speak about her experiences as a college student who was deeply invested in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1960’s.