- I was eight years old when Trayvon Martin was killed. So why am I here when I am 16 and demand change? Will I be there next time? I demand a change, Gauff says in a video she posted on social media.
Martin was an unarmed black teen who was killed by a white man in Florida in 2012, giving the start to the Black Lives Matters movement.
- My heart breaks when I fight for the future of my brothers. I fight for the future of my future children and I fight for the future of my future grandchildren, says Gauff.
Grandma wrote history 1961Gauff spoke at the meeting after her grandmother Yvonne Odom, 74, gave her speech. Odom is a legendary leader of the black equality movement in the United States. She was the first black student at her high school in 1961.
"It's so sad that I'm protesting the same things she did over 50 years ago," says Gauff.
Odom keeps in constant contact with his grandson and believes in a bright future on the tennis court.
"She may be the youngest Wimbledon champion ever," says Odom, according to the British Mirror.
16-year-old Gauff (born March 16, 2004) could not, under any circumstances, become the youngest winner in Wimbledon. Lottie Dodd was only 15 years and 285 days when she won in 1887. In modern times, Martina Hingis won in 1997 when she was 16 and 278 days.
Gauff broke through in Wimbledon just last year when she, as a 15-year-old, defeated her idol Venus Williams.