Alice Coachman grew up in Albany, Georgia, during Jim Crow. She was not allowed to train on public tracks or fields. She practiced barefoot in fields and dirt roads.
She won 25 national championships in track and field. She qualified for the 1940 and 1944 Olympics — which were cancelled because of World War Two.
In 1948, at the London Olympics, Alice Coachman cleared 5 feet 6 and an eighth inches in the high jump on her first attempt — the only athlete to clear that height cleanly.
She won the gold medal. She became the first Black woman in history — from any country — to win an Olympic gold medal.
At the ceremony, King George VI shook her hand.
When she came home to Albany, Georgia, the city held a parade in her honor. She was not allowed to sit near white spectators at her own homecoming celebration. The mayor of Albany gave a speech but refused to shake her hand or make eye contact with her during it.
She was the most decorated woman athlete in America.
In her home city, she could not drink from the same water fountain as the people celebrating her.
Coca-Cola made her the first Black woman to sign an endorsement deal with an American company. That was 1952. Four years after the gold.
FIRST: First Black woman in the world to win an Olympic gold medal (1948 London Olympics).
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