What does a young Black girl, born in rural Georgia at the height of Jim Crow discrimination set out to do? She becomes the first Black woman from ANY COUNTRY, to win a Gold Medal at the Olympics. That is the story and legacy of Alice Coachman.
Alice Coachman was born in Albany, Georgia in 1923. She was one of ten children born to Fred and Evelyn Coachman. Like most Black families in rural Georgia, the Coachmans were poor, and Alice supplemented the family income in any way she could. Her daily routine included going to school, picking cotton, supplying corn to local mills, or picking plums and pecans to sell. Beyond these tasks, the young Coachman was also very athletic. She loved to run, and she was fast.
In the 1920s, the most “ladylike” sports were swimming and tennis, but Fred Coachmen believed any sport was off-limits to his young daughter. He sometimes whipped her for pursuing athletics, preferring that she sit on the front porch and look “dainty.” Neither these social expectations nor her father’s discouragement stopped Coachman. Not only did she run, but she played softball and baseball with the boys. She was as good as any of the boys she competed with.
By the time she was in the fifth grade, her teacher at Monroe Street Elementary School, Cora Bailey, and her aunt, Carrie Spry, encouraged her to continue running. By seventh grade, she was one of the best athletes in Albany, boy or girl. Yet that did not give her equal access to training facilities. Barred from training with white children or using white athletic facilities, young Coachman trained on her own. She ran barefoot on dusty roads to improve her stamina and used sticks and rope to practice the high jump. She was determined to not let Jim Crow determine her future.
While competing for her high school track team in Albany, she caught the attention of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. A coach at Tuskegee asked her parents if Coachman could train with their high school team during the summer. Coachman ended up transferring to Tuskegee in her sophomore year to complete high school. Coachman said that “track and field was my key to getting a degree and meeting great people and opening a lot of doors in high school and college.” In 1943, Coachman entered the Tuskegee Institute college division to study dressmaking while continuing to compete for the school’s track-and-field and basketball teams. As a member of the track-and-field team, she won four national championships for sprinting and high jumping.
People started pushing Coachman to try out for the Olympics. She was one of the best track-and-field competitors in the country, winning national titles in the 50m, 100m, and 400m relay. But, the high jump was her event, and from 1939 to 1948 she won the American national title annually.
In 1940 and 1944, the Olympic games were canceled due to World War II, but, when the games were back on 1948, Coachman was still reluctant to try out for the team. She eventually attended the trials and, while competing with a back injury, obliterated the existing US high jump record.
At Wembley Stadium in London in August 1948, Coachman competed for her Olympic gold in the high jump. She became the Gold Medalist when she cleared the 5 feet 6 1/8-inch bar on her first attempt. It was a new Olympic record. With this medal, Coachman became not only the first Black woman to win Olympic gold, but the only American woman to win a gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games.
Upon her return to the United States, she was celebrated. Count Basie, the famous jazz musician, threw her a party. President Truman congratulated her and she got a 175-mile motorcade from Atlanta to Albany and an “Alice Coachman Day” in Georgia to celebrate her accomplishment.
Yet these latter celebrations occurred in the segregated South. In the Albany auditorium, where she was honored, whites and African Americans had to sit separately. The white mayor of Albany sat on the stage with Coachman but refused to shake her hand. She had to leave her celebration by a side door.
Coachman’s track career ended at the age of 24. She completed her degree at Albany State College (now University), where she enrolled in 1947. She graduated with a B.S. in Home Economics and a minor in science in 1949. She then became an elementary and high school teacher and track coach. In 1952, Coachman became the first Black female athlete to endorse an international consumer brand, Coca-Cola
Coachman was inducted into nine halls of fame including the National Track-and-Field Hall of Fame (1975) and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame (2004). In 1979 Coachman was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. In 1994, she started the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation to aid young athletes and former competitors in financial need. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Coachman was honored as one of the 100 greatest Olympians.
She was an inspiration to many, reminding them that “when the going gets tough and you feel like throwing your hands in the air, listen to that voice that tells you ‘Keep going. Hang in there.’...Guts and determination will pull you through.” Alice Coachman died on July 14, 2014 at the age of 90.