Pancho Gonzalez: Prejudice in Pro Tennis

On tour, Richard received the key to the city in Juarez, Mexico.

Richard Gonzalez had encountered prejudice first hand traveling across the country playing tennis. Returning to Los Angeles, he began to talk to other Mexican Americans about racism.

He learned more about how discrimination was a negative force in many of their lives. Gonzalez was moved by their pain and wished he could do something about it. Actually his presence in professional tennis was doing more for oppressed people than he may have known. He was one of the few Latinos many people in the U.S. had ever encountered, even if it was only through the sports pages of the newspaper. He made them aware that many Latinos had been born and raised in the U.S. and were citizens just like themselves.

Other Latinos took pride in Gonzalez’s achievements. His success in a world previously off-limits to people of color inspired them. Some took up tennis themselves. Others gained strength from his example and faced racism with more resolve. Furthermore, Gonzalez served as an inspiration to working-class people from all ethnic backgrounds. He was an underdog, a solitary rebel. His life revolved around one goal–playing excellent tennis.

Even those…