Althea Gibson demonstrates her backhand

Here's a photo of Althea Gibson in 1958, swinging a tennis racquet. She seems to be demonstrating her backstroke for the camera in this rather formal photo. The shot was by famed photographer Carl Van Vechten, and is now part of the collections of the U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Althea Gibson was born in 1927, so she would have turned 31 the year this photo was taken. In 1958 she won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, for the second year running.