More than one: Ora Belle Washington is the athlete that excelled in both tennis and basketball but chances are you have never heard of her. Arguably the first Black star in Women’s sports in the United States. A Hall of Fame athlete that was nicknamed in the Black press as the “Queen of Two Courts.” This is her story. She was born around 1899 in Virginia. Growing up with 8 siblings, the Washingtons owned a farm where they raised pigs and grew vegetables, wheat and corn. Even though the family had it better than sharecroppers at the time, they still struggled in the poor economy and like many African Americans they moved up north for better opportunities in Germantown. At the age of 25, she started playing organized sports competitively. After her sister passed away, Ora found a second home at the Germantown YWCA and here she started playing tennis. Within her first year of picking up a racket, Washington won her first national tournament and her first national championship. Tennis was racially segregated which meant that she could only compete in the American Tennis Association (ATA). On the court, there was no one like Ora Washington. Newspapers described that she won her matches with “ridiculous ease” and it resulted in her winning numerous titles. But it was not only tennis where people got to see her dominating talents. Washington also added basketball to her athletic resume as she joined the Germantown Hornets in 1930. Her way of playing was described as “flashy and aggressive” which brought people rushing to see her play many years before women’s basketball became popular in mainstream society. Over a 12 year period, Ora Washington was undefeated in tennis and she earned 201 trophies for both tennis and basketball. While today star athletes are paid high salaries, she had to work as a housekeeper for wealthy white families during her entire playing career. As we pay homage to change makers such as Althea Gibson and Serena Williams, we can’t forget those whose stories haven’t been documented by mainstream media. One time for the Queen of Two Courts 🎾🏀