Sisters are doin' it for themselves

"Finally!" you're saying to yourself. "It's February 24th and you're finally covering the famous sisters. I can't believe it's taken you this long to write about Margaret and Roumania Peters! Wait...who?" Yup, that's right, the sisters you might be thinking of were very decidedly not the first pair of black sisters to make an impact in the sport of tennis - the Peters sisters came along many decades before they did. In fact, before I discovered their existence, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough vintage black women players to write about; imagine my surprise when I found out about them. So today you're getting a two-for-one deal! They are the focus of today's Black Tennis Month post.

Margaret was born in 1915; Roumania (born as Matilda Roumania, but later known as simply Roumania) in 1917. They became known as "Pete and Repeat," named after a 1931 movie. As has been the case with a lot of these vintage players, there's not a ton of biographical info on their childhood years or how exactly they picked up the sport; from what I've been able to gather, they grew up in Washington, D.C. and they learned the game on the public clay courts at Rose Park in the city. They were already skilled enough that by the time Margaret was 21 and Roumania was 19, they were invited to play in the ATA's national championship. Roumania would reach the final, losing to Lulu Ballard, but observers were impressed by the play of both sisters; Cleveland Abbott, who was the athletic director at Tuskegee University, offered Margaret a scholarship to attend the school and play tennis there, but she wanted to wait until Roumania graduated high school, as the two sisters were very close. Beginning in 1937, they attended the university, enduring the usual Jim Crow bullshit and racism that every black person had to deal with, but they thrived, with both sisters earning physical education degrees in 1941.

The sisters thrived in college athletics, playing both basketball and tennis; Roumania won the singles title in a championship comprised of southern HBCUs, and the pair won doubles titles together. However, the sisters also continued to play tennis in the ATA leagues during this time, as well; in fact, the duo was so good that they won the ATA's national doubles title a whopping fourteen times together - from 1938-1941, and again from 1944 through 1953. Talk about a monopoly! Roumania also appears to have been the better player of the two in singles play - she won national ATA titles in 1944 and 1946, the latter title coming at the expense of none other than Althea Gibson in the final, just before she began her own streak of 10 straight ATA singles titles. As a matter of fact, Roumania's victory over Althea in the 1944 final is the only known loss that Althea ever suffered against a fellow black woman, at least as far as surviving historical records show. Unlike some of the other black players profiled so far that played around this area, the sisters gained a little bit of fame for their exploits on the tennis court; the legendary actor Gene Kelly, who was living in Washington, D.C. around the time of their success, was a huge fan of theirs and practiced with them on occasion, and they also played matches in the Caribbean in front of British royalty. But like so many others in the amateur era, they were never able to reap the financial benefits that are afforded to today's players, despite their incredible successes.

Both sisters eventually retired from competitive competition in the late 1950s and settled back into their chosen career fields; they both received masters degrees in physical education from New York University, and moved back to Washington, D.C. Roumania married, started a family, and taught at Howard University for a spell before joining the high school ranks as a teacher, basketball coach, and a tennis instructor for underprivileged children. Margaret never married; she dedicated her life to being a special education teacher. According to surviving family members, the sisters were never bitter about the lack of opportunities afforded to them in their prime; they simply loved the sport of tennis and continued to follow it closely for the remainder of their lives. In fact, in an article I found, one of Roumania's children said upon the success of the [name redacted] sisters that "it should have been you all"; Margaret simply responded, "No, it's their turn now," a remarkably understanding response.

Both sisters lived very long lives, passing away this millennium: Roumania died in 2003 of pneumonia at age 85; Margaret passed away the following year at age 88 due to complications from Alzheimers. It was only at the end of their long lives that they finally got their due for their contributions to tennis, getting inducted into the USTA'sd Mid-Atlantic Section Hall of Fame in 2003, and receiving an achivement award before a U.S. Fed Cup match the same year. In 2015, the D.C. courts on which they learned to play were dedicated to and renamed in their honor (shown in the plaque above). It's incredibly belated recognition for "Pete and Repeat," but one that is well deserved - they were truly among the greatest pioneers in black tennis history, and deserve every single accolade they've received and then some.