Robert Ryland was barred from competing in a whites-only professional tennis league until he was nearly 40. He remembers as a kid watching the Ku Klux Klan murder one of his cousins in the streets.
He got his first racket from his dad at 8 years old, was a national champion at 35, and at 38 became the first black man to play professional tennis. He quit playing competitively at 85. And now, at 99, Mr.
Ryland is the oldest of New York City’s 13,775 tennis permit holders, city records show.United States Latest News, United States Headlines
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