Billie Jean King reveals how a $1 contract shaped professional women’s tennis

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• Judy Woodruff:

  The 19th, an independent nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, and a streaming partner of the "NewsHour," hosts its annual Represents summit this week.

  In an interview with our own Amna Nawaz for the event, tennis icon Billie Jean King described how, as a young woman, she'd worked with other female players to turn amateur women's tennis into a professional sport.

• Billie Jean King:

  We went and talked to Gladys Heldman, who was publisher of "World Tennis" magazine. And there were nine of us called The Original Nine signed a $1 contract with her.

  And here are the three things we were willing to do. We had a long talk about this, because I told the women, I said: If you think you're going to make a lot of money, if you think you're going to get a lot of applause, we're going to get a lot of applause, et cetera, don't do this.

  I mean, I was trying to be really — telling all the risks. But here's the three things we decided on. We were willing to give up our careers, and that these were the three things, that any girl in this world, if she's good enough, would have — finally have a place to compete, number two, that she'd be appreciated for her accomplishments, not only her looks, and, number three, the most important thing was to be able to make a living.

  And that's why we are the leaders in women's sports today. Every time a woman tennis player gets a check or makes money off the court, that is because of that moment in time that we were willing to stick together, even if we got suspended, no matter what happened. We were able — we were willing to give up our careers.

  And we were in our 20s. We were right in the thick of our careers. We didn't care.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So great to hear from Billie Jean King and from Katie Ledecky.

  And you can watch all of 19th Represents this week on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour, and on the "NewsHour"'s YouTube page.