2018 Black History Month Edition

Diversity, Equity, and Poverty Programs Celebrates Black History
Alice Coachman
1923-2014
Alice Coachman became the first African American woman from any
country to win an Olympic Gold Medal when she competed at the 1948
Summer Olympics in London, UK. Born November 9, 1923, in
Albany, Georgia, to Evelyn and Fred Coachman, Alice was the
fifth of ten children. As an athletic child of the Jim Crow South,
who was denied access to regular training facilities,
Coachman trained by running on dirt roads and creating her
own hurdles to practice jumping.
During World War II, the Olympic committee cancelled the
1940 and 1944 games. Alice Coachman’s first Olympic
opportunity came in 1948 in London, when she was twentyfour.
On August 8, 1948, Alice Coachman leapt 5 feet 6 1/8
inches to set a new Olympic record and win a gold medal
for the high jump.
During her career, she won thirty-four national
titles, ten for the high jump in consecutive
years. Alice Coachman was inducted into nine
halls of fame including the National Track-and-
Field Hall of Fame (1975) and the U.S. Olympic
Hall of Fame (2004). Coachman became the
first black woman to endorse an international
product when Coca-Cola signed her as a spokesperson in
1952. Coachman married Frank A. Davis and is the mother of two children. In 1994, she
founded the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation to provide assistance to young
athletes and former Olympic competitors.
Coachman died in Albany, Georgia on July 14, 2014. She was 90.
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