Ora Washington Biography

Ora Mae Washington (January 23, 1898 - December 21, 1971) was an American athlete from the Germantown section of Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as the "Queen of Tennis".

Life

In professional tennis, she won the American Tennis Association's national singles title eight times in nine years between 1929-1937 and 12 straight double championships.

She played basketball first in 1930 with the Germantown Hornets where her 22-1 record earned her the national female title. The Hornets were originally sponsored by a local YMCA, but they separated from the YMCA and became a fully professional team. The following year, Washington led the Hornets to thirty-three consecutive victories. Their opponents included African American women's team, white women's team and occasionally, African American men;'s teams. In one game against the male Quicksteppers in January 1932, they stayed close and then on a last second basket by Evelyn Mann, the Hornets emerged victorious. Later, playing with the Philadelphia Tribune from 1932-1942, she was the team's center, leading scorer, and coach. Washington played for the Tribunes in a three-game event against Bennett College in 1934. The Tribines won all three games, the second of which was described by the Chicago Defender as "the greatest exhibition ever staged in North Carolina". The "Tribune Girls" won 11 straight Women"?s Colored Basketball World"?s Championships. Washington was said to be "the best Colored player in the world."

Unable to compete against the top white tennis player of the time, Helen Wills Moody, because Moody refused to play her, she retired from sports in the mid-1940s. For the remainder of her life, she supported herself as a housekeeper. She died in 1971 in Germantown and was buried in her Virginia hometown.

In the mid-1980s, she was inducted to Temple University's Sports Hall of Fame.

A state historical marker stands at the location of the Colored YWCA where she taught and played, at 6128 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, now home to Settlement Music School.

In 2009, Washington was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Further reading

• Wiggins, David K. (editor) Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes. University of Arkansas Press, 2006.

See also

• Germantown, Philadelphia
• Women's tennis in the United States