Coco Gauff's milestone teenage moments: a powerful speech protesting police brutality

This year, for Black History Month, we’re focusing on a young African American who has already made her share of tennis history. In her six years as a pro, Coco Gauff has grabbed the Grand Slam-winning baton from Venus and Serena Williams, while also continuing Arthur Ashe’s commitment to racial justice.

With Gauff’s 20th birthday coming up in March, we’re spending this week looking at five milestone moments from her teens.

2020: Speaks at a rally protesting police brutality

Like every other 16-year-old in the U.S. in the spring of 2020, Coco Gauff was grounded. The COVID-19 pandemic had shut down schools and workplaces. For the first time since World War II, the tennis tours had come to a halt; Wimbledon itself had announced its own cancellation. Gauff began the year with a run to the fourth round at the Australian Open, which included a Top 5 win over Naomi Osaka. But now she was back at home in Delray Beach, Fla., with no idea when she’d be able to pick up her racquets and get back on the road.

Unlike most other 16-year-olds, though, Gauff had a platform, as well as first-hand knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Her maternal grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, helped integrate Delray Beach’s public schools in 1961. Now another social movement was sweeping the country—the protests over George Floyd’s murder—and Gauff was ready to play a part.

In her case, that meant standing up to speak at a rally in front of the Delray Beach City Hall.

“I think it’s sad that I’m here protesting the same thing that [my grandmother] did 50-plus years ago,” she said. “So I’m here to tell you guys that we must first love each other no matter what. … Second, we need to take action.”

Action for Gauff came at the ballot box, even though she was too young to enter one herself.

“I’m not of age to vote, and it’s in your hands to vote for my future, my brother’s future and for your future. So that’s one way to make change.”

Gauff was as poised in this setting as she is on the court. What she showed that day was what she has always shown: a mind that’s engaged with what’s going on around her, a clarity about what she believes, and a willingness to express it in a way that it isn’t strident or apologetic.

In that, she might remind veteran tennis fans of Arthur Ashe, another African American who grew up in the South, and who, like Gauff, put his Christian faith at the center of his life. While never a political radical, Ashe brought a level-headed commitment to the issues of his day, and was an anti-apartheid activist for two decades.

The combination of the pandemic shutdowns and the Floyd protests made for an explosive moment in American history. Since then, Gauff hasn’t been called on to give such a high-profile speech at such a tense time. But her commitment to using her voice has been consistent. She has spoken out about gun control, or the lack thereof, in the U.S., and she refused to condemn the climate protestors who interrupted her US Open semifinal last year.

“I believe in climate change,” she said instead.

Gauff found her voice and made a contribution beyond the court in 2020. It’s a safe bet that won’t be the last time she takes the mike in a cause greater than her own career.