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USTA honors scholarship recipients at 2026 HBCU Springcoming events

June 08, 2026

The USTA announced the winners of 2026 USTA Althea Gibson HBCU Scholarship at HBCU Springcoming™ in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York. 

 

The scholarship is named in honor of Althea Gibson, a trailblazing athlete and graduate of Florida A&M University, an HBCU. In 1950, Gibson broke the color barrier in tennis and became the first African American to play in the U.S. National Championships (now the U.S. Open), opening doors for future athletes and inspiring significant changes both within and beyond sports.

The USTA Althea Gibson HBCU Scholarship is awarded annually to two students in each of the USTA’s Southern, Eastern, and Southern California sections. This year, applicants were asked to submit their resume, academic transcripts, and a personal essay based on one of the following prompts: “Explain the legacy of Althea Gibson and how she inspires your tennis career,” or “What is the future of HBCU tennis programs and why should Black people embrace tennis as an athletic pursuit?” 

 

The festival selects host cities that boast large populations of HBCU alumni and professionals, and each stop offers opportunities for college graduates to reunite and socialize through live music, food, tennis and other entertainment. This year, HBCU SpringComing™ gave attendees an inside look at the event’s legacy and impact with the debut of “The Road to TENure,” a short-form documentary chronicling a decade of vision and hustle behind building one of the nation’s most celebrated HBCU immersive festivals focused on Black college alumni and their impact outside the classroom.

Check out this year’s HBCU Scholarship recipients below:

 

Atlanta: 

  • Dillan LaFrance, Morehouse College

  • Danielle Hood, Savannah State University

 

Los Angeles:

  • Shane Hines, Howard University

  • Lyric Wilson, Howard University

 

New York:

  • Cayden Campbell, North Carolina Central University

  • Lielle Parke, Rutgers Preparatory School

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