Billie Jean King

Obama Presidential Center Honoree

Billie Jean King

Space Name: Billie Jean King Program Room | Home Court | Level 2

Billie Jean King is the first woman athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She won 39 Grand Slam tennis championships and changed the course of sports history. Her victory in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes,” viewed by 90 million people worldwide, became a defining moment in the fight for equality. King founded the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation.

With gratitude to Jeanie Buss, Laura and Brooke Ricketts, and Pablo Salame

“ We honor...what she did to broaden the reach of the game, to change how women athletes and women everywhere view themselves, and to give everyone -- regardless of gender or sexual orientation—including my two daughters—a chance to compete both on the court and in life.”

–President Obama

Legacy on Campus

  • Home Court

    Home Court features the Billie Jean King Program Room, honoring the tennis legend and women’s rights icon who challenged gender discrimination in athletics. 

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  • We The People

    Explore Level 5 of the Obama Presidential Museum to discover how trail-blazing icons like Billie Jean King helped forge a more inclusive nation, and see how we can all contribute to creating lasting change.

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The Barack Obama Foundation is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN 46-4950751).

John Lewis

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Through the honoree naming initiative at the Obama Presidential Center, we are partnering with our donors to celebrate a part of the history in which the Obama story is so deeply rooted by associating a named space with a hero, moment, or person "on whose shoulders we stand"—an honoree who made the Obamas’ story possible.

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