When 80-year-old Lorraine Alexander was growing up as a young Black girl in Crotona during the 1950s, she became inspired by Black professional tennis player Althea Gibson and gained a love for the game. Wanting to support her interests, Alexander’s mother went on a search for a tennis coach.
Given the racial climate of the time, it was important for Alexander’s mother to find her someone she could identify with, someone who looked like her — but this would prove easier said than done.
“I remember my mother trying to find a coach of color to teach me and we couldn’t find one,” said Alexander. “So, I stuck with it.”
She taught herself against a wall.
But it wasn’t until she moved to Co-op City in 1970 that Alexander would become seriously engulfed in the game due to the availability of tennis courts there. Yet again, she was faced with an environment lacking Black faces.
“If you had two black people in the building, that was a lot,” Alexander said about the beginnings of the northeast Bronx housing development, which opened in the late ’60s.
At the time, Alexander noticed a lack of activities for youth in the area and in 1972, she, along with her late husband, traveled to South Carolina to become certified tennis instructors with the United States Professional Tennis Registry. They would then go on to establish the unofficial Co-op City tennis club the same year. Through the club, Alexander estimates teaching more than 100 children how to play the sport.
One of her students is 12-year-old Zara Henry Joseph, a Co-op City resident who met Alexander by happenstance.
Henry Joseph was with her mother at a haunted house one Halloween when she noticed a scared little boy and began to comfort him. That boy’s great grandmother turned out to be Alexander. After Henry Joseph’s mother got to talking with her, the little girl started taking tennis lessons with Alexander — that was back in 2019.
“I enjoy being with my friends,” said Henry Joseph. “I also get to showcase my skills.”
Alexander’s club gained notoriety and in 1982, New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) added her site to their repertoire of locations where they mentor youth ages 5-18 for free across NYC. Alexander remains the director of the Co-op City community tennis program site. The NYJTL, a branch of National Junior Tennis League, was established in 1971 and is now called New York Junior Tennis & Learning.
“[Alexander] devotes her life to providing Bronx youth with access to tennis and education and helping them explore their athletic potential through tennis,” said Scott Daly, senior director of community tennis programs at NYJTL.
As a result of her dedication to teaching and sharing her love for the sport, Alexander was awarded with a $100,000 grant from DICK’S Sporting Goods in 2020 with $25,000 to be disbursed annually over four years. The monies are used to help fund the Co-op City site of the NYJTL in the form of programs and equipment.
Alexander was also honored by the U.S. Tennis Association at the 2023 U.S. Open’s inaugural “Champions of Equality” event – a celebration that recognizes women who fight for gender and racial equality in their personal spheres.
She would also like to stress that she is eagerly recruiting for her weekend winter sessions at the New York Tennis Club at 3081 Harding Ave. in Locust Point. Classes are Saturdays and Sundays 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Alexander understands the early time commitment, but said that it’s a “great way for the family to get together” and helps with educational growth through possible future scholarships.
“But anyway, do your article, not on me and on receiving $100,000, do your article on the New York Junior Tennis League and what they provide,” Alexander humbly added. “We need to get the word out there in our Black and brown communities about what is provided to them.”
Since 2020, the amount of tennis players across the U.S. increased by 5.9 million players or 33%, according to United States Tennis Association. With the popularity of the sport spreading, tennis courts are becoming more prevalent with 99 public ones already in the Bronx. Crotona Park became home to the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning in 2017 and this September, fashion giant Lacoste and the NYC Parks Department renovated two courts at St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven. The courts feature the unique silhouettes of tennis icon Venus Williams, who made a special appearance at the unveiling.
This article was updated Nov. 29 at 11:42 a.m.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
