“No black man or woman in the history of the U.S. Open has umpired a men’s semifinal or final singles match. Nor has a female umpire worked on any of the top 16 male matches at the U.S. Open, a point recently acknowledged in court papers filed by the USTA. Of the 2,000 umpires certified by professional tennis’s ruling bodies, less than 1 percent are black.
‘I was the first gold-badge black umpire ever, and if I didn’t have a conscience and could ignore that so many blacks and women are being discriminated against, I’d still be umpiring important matches,’ said [Cecil] Hollins, who serves as an administrative law judge with the state housing agency in New York.”
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