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1973 · Houston, Texas, and New York

Billie Jean King & the fight for equality in tennis

Sports & cultural barriers

Billie Jean King
Billie Jean KingSundance Film Festival, 2026
Photo creditClaire Fridkin / WikiPortraits / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped/resized. Adaptations use the same license.

Photographs are cropped to fit. Photo dates and original images are available through the source credits.

Billie Jean King used her position in professional tennis to press for equal opportunities and pay. Her televised match against Bobby Riggs in Houston became a widely watched confrontation over women’s abilities. All In recounts her broader life; Battle of the Sexes dramatizes the 1973 match and its context.

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When1973
WhereHouston, Texas, and New York
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National Archives · Pieces of History

Looking Beyond the “Battle of the Sexes” – Pieces of History

A history blog looks beyond King’s famous tennis match to her advocacy for equality.

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Books

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Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers

All In

King’s autobiography was published after the film. It provides a firsthand companion account, not the film’s source text.

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Battle of the Sexes (2017)

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Smithsonian Magazine · Free Article

The True Story Behind Billie Jean King's Victorious “Battle of the Sexes”

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Reading Access Notes

Search reviewed 2026-09-16. Sources searched: Google Books, Internet Archive, Open Library, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Magazine, The Atavist Magazine, Google Books (case/title search), Scribd, Everand, OverDrive and hoopla (combined title search). Search indexing is incomplete; this is not an exhaustive list of the web. Access can change by edition, country and library membership. Library loans may require sign-in or a wait. Everand titles may need a paid subscription; a trial is not permanent free access. Scribd documents are third-party uploads, with uploader details noted where checked. We link to source pages and write our own descriptions rather than reproducing copyrighted books.

A separate Texas Monthly search was blocked by the publisher’s automated-access rules and could not be verified.

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Positive Outcome

Laws, Advocacy & Change

Positive Outcome

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Documented laws, advocacy and reforms. Listing a change does not claim it is effective or universally supported.

Sports policy change · USTA

1973: Equal prize money at the US Open

The US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money to women and men. The USTA documents King’s role in the campaign. This was a tournament policy, not a law created by the Riggs match.

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