LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville park will soon undergo some upgrades through a national grant.
The tennis courts at Chickasaw Park are more than the sport itself. The formerly segregated park has been home to the West Louisville Tennis Club, which was designed in 1923 and completed in 1930.
High school sophomore Marion Whitfield spends his summer perfecting his serves.
“It’s an individual sport, so it’s not team-reliant. You know, everything you do, it’s on you. If you mess up the sure fall, you succeed. It’s on you,” Whitfield said.
He said he knows some history of Chickasaw Park but not what he calls old-school history.
“I know it’s been around for over 100 years. I don’t know how they founded it,” Withfield said.
The tennis courts at Chickasaw Park are considered historic said Aretha Fuqua. She’s the president of the West Louisville Tennis Club.
“This is one of the original parks that was designated solely for the purpose of the African-American community. So that was in 1923, so I think that’s an important history that we don’t want to lose track of,” Fuqua said.
She said through the sport they’re aiming to create individuals with character.
“So we’re trying to create a generation of compassionate, caring, and loving people that care about what has happened before them to make the opportunities available to them,” Fuqua said.
She explains that Chickasaw Park tennis court is believed to be the only landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm that was specifically for African Americans and visited by Althea Gibson, the first Black woman to win at Wimbledon.
“Olmsted Parks has been one of our biggest advocates, and we would not be where we are without it and I’m so thankful for that,” Fuqua said.
Grateful even for the next generation, so Whitfield can continue perfecting his tennis serve.
“So history doesn’t repeat itself. And I can keep teaching the generation after me and keep it going,” Whitfield said.
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund awarded $50,000 to Chickasaw Park.
The park will use the funds to add a sign to signify the park’s history and some project upgrades.
Lawana Holland-Moore is the Director of Fellowships and Interpretive Strategies. She said African American history is American History and those stories need to be told and preserved.
“Because for far too long, sites of African American history have been overlooked and undervalued. These grants will help to provide the support and capital necessary to ensure that these African American sites are preserved and recognized and that the story behind them is told to a broader audience,” Holland-Moore said.
In all, the fund awarded $3 million in grants to protect and preserve 30 sites representing Black history.