A spirit of activism has always been a part of the WTA tour

Tennis Channel's year-long celebration of the WTA Tour's 50th anniversary, brought to you by Intuit Quickbooks, continues with Chapter 11: A History of Activism (Watch our feature video above.)

• For Chapter 1: Thank You, Gladys, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 2: Red Hot Women's Tennis, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 3: Chrissie & Martina, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 4: Steffi & Monica, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 5: Venus & Serena, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 6: Teenage Dream, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 7, The Future is Now, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 8, Global Reach, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 9, Wide Range of Styles, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 10, Crossover Icons, CLICK HERE

It was June 2020. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Coco Gauff had something important to say.

Participating at a peaceful protest in her hometown of Delray Beach, Fla., the 16-year-old Gauff spoke to a crowd before her, “I think it’s sad that I’m here protesting the same thing that (my grandmother) did 50-plus years ago. So I'm here to tell you guys that we must first love each other no matter what. We must have the tough conversations with our friends. I've been spending all week having tough conversations, trying to educate my non-Black friends on how they can help the movement.”

Gauff spoke less than a year after she’d burst on the global tennis scene with a run to the fourth round of Wimbledon. Rapidly, the teenager was aware of the potential platform she had and how it went hand in hand with her quest to excel.

“I am using my voice,” she said in a TikTok video. “Will you use yours?”

Several months after Gauff’s speech, Naomi Osaka made similarly powerful statement. Following each of her seven wins at the US Open, Osaka donned a mask that bore the name of a Black person who had been killed—names that had been cited in the dialogue surrounding racial injustice.

"I feel like I'm a vessel at this point in order to spread awareness,” said Osaka. “Hopefully, it's not gonna dull the pain. Hopefully, I can help with anything they need."

Gauff and Osaka were following a tradition of social activism that went back even prior to the start of the WTA. As Billie Jean King and Cynthia Starr wrote in their 2023 book, Trailblazers: The Unmatched Story of Women’s Tennis, “In 1970, three years before the founding of the WTA, nine brave women—myself included—broke with the tennis establishment and signed $1 contracts with Gladys Heldman to launch our own professional tournament in Houston. We are remembered today as the Original Nine, and what we did was the most important thing that has ever happened in women’s sports.”

If at first Heldman and the nine players were primarily seeking a way to earn a living playing professional tennis, all concurrently were being strongly politicized by their very actions.

“We were part of the bigger tide that was changing the world,” said Kristy Pigeon, one of the Original Nine.

Given all this, social and political consciousness was embedded into the WTA’s operating system. Within two years of the tour starting, King led the charge for equity.

“Unless Wimbledon changes and gives more prize money,” she said in a 1972 New York Times article, “I have to consider not playing there.” Later, a boycott of the US Open was strongly considered. But soon after the June 1973 founding of the WTA, the US Open announced it would become the first major to offer equal prize money.

On the opening Monday night of the 2023 US Open, a special ceremony honored that moment. One of the speakers was former First Lady Michelle Obama.

“We can use whatever platforms we have to speak out and fight to protect the progress we’ve made,” she said, “and level the playing field for all of our daughters and their daughters.”

“I do feel that, as a female athlete, I have a unique responsibility to the feminist movement,” WTA pro Nicole Gibbs said in a 2017 New Yorker article. “Women have had a serious uphill battle for respect and reasonable compensation in the sports world. I think it’s important that female athletes (and especially tennis players) give a nod to pioneers like Billie Jean King by embracing feminism and continuing the push for equality.”

Not until 2007 did Wimbledon become the last of the four majors to offer equal prize money. In that instance, Venus Williams played the leadership role.

"If you're in the business of change, you have to be prepared to play the long game," wrote Williams. "Progress is slow; often agonizingly so. It's seldom easy; in fact, it’s pretty near always tough. But the tough thing and the right thing are often the same thing. And equality is a great thing. Maybe the most important thing."

Fittingly, Williams won Wimbledon that year, taking home a first prize check of $1.4 million.

Over these many years, others have also stepped up to speak out on various social causes, from Serena Williams on racism to current pros Iga Swiatek and Elena Svitolina addressing the war in Ukraine.

“As a Ukrainian, I cannot be silent,” Svitolina said about the war this past summer. “I want to scream everywhere I can and use my voice [to] the fullest.”

In 2016, Madison Keys commenced a partnership with FearlesslyGiRL to combat cyber-bullying. “It is time to shed a light on it not just for athletes,” Keys said in 2018, “for every girl who is being bullied.”

And then there is Martina Navratilova, who has addressed a wide range of causes for nearly 50 years. At the age of 18, during the 1975 US Open, Navratilova left her native Czechoslovakia and sought asylum in the United States.

“I wanted my freedom,” said Navratilova. That was but one case of the political being personal. Since then, Navratilova has expressed her views on politicians, same-sex marriage, transgender athletes in sports, and much, much more.

“I lived behind the Iron Curtain,” she said in a 2021 New York Times article. “You really think you are going to tell me to keep my mouth shut?”

The tour’s leadership has also made statements. In 2021, amid concerns for the safety of WTA player Peng Shuai in the wake of her accusing a Chinese government official of sexual assault, WTA CEO Steve Simon announced the tour would not hold events in China in 2022.

“In good conscience,” said Simon, “I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault.”

This past spring, though, the WTA announced plans to return to China.

“We have not been able to achieve everything we set out for, but we have been in touch with people close to Peng and are assured she is living safely with her family in Beijing,” said a statement issued by the tour. “We also have received assurances that WTA players and staff operating in China will be safe and protected while in the country. The WTA takes this commitment seriously and will hold all parties responsible.”

Fifty years ago, journalist Grace Lichtenstein wrote a book about the 1973 women’s tour titled A Long Way, Baby. Half a century later, she reflected on the way women’s tennis and political issues are intertwined.

“The players have taken it on themselves as citizens of the world,” said Lichtenstein. “They see what the atmosphere is in terms of equal pay and Black Lives Matter and other issues. They’re following the world.”

“There are always two parties,” said the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, “the establishment and the movement.” Unquestionably, the WTA has always been aligned with the movement—a great fit for a sport where, after all, success is highly predicated on movement.