In the 1960’s and 70’s, there was a black superstar in a sport that is still tainted with problems of racial discrimination today: tennis. And as a Richmond native, having competed in wrestling tournaments named after him, it only felt right that I shine some light on someone who might not be as well known in the sports community: Mr. Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe grew up in segregated Richmond, Virginia and though his father made attempts to shield him from it, he was victim to racism in his childhood. As such, he was taught by his tennis coach and mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, to remain quiet and let his playing do the talking for him when he was confronted with racism, which was quite often both in tennis and during the late 1960′, 1970’s, and 1980’s.
Arthur kept this lesson with him as he began his professional career in tennis, even when he won the US Open in 1968, the year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Because of this, Arthur was criticized by all fronts: white people hated him because he was black, tennis fans hated him even more because he was black, and black activists like Jesse Jackson spoke negatively of him because he did not use his voice to promote change.
Ashe kept true to the ideology of letting his game do the talking for him as he won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, but what made him stray was being denied a travel visa to play in South Africa. This happened to him three times before he was allowed into the country to play, and once he was allowed to play there he experienced something that changed his attitude towards activism forever. A little black boy followed him around the stadium the entire time he was there, and when Ashe asked him why, he told him that he was the first truly free black man he’d ever seen.
After this experience, Ashe became a full-fledged activist against apartheid in South Africa–giving speeches and speaking before Congress. He was so involved with activism that he was dismissed from the US tennis team because they deemed him too caught up in politics to be a good Captain of the team.
Though he was criticized for his silence at the time, I believe that Arthur Ashe was a Jackie Robinson type of activist during the height of his career, and used his platform later on to be an activist “by the book.” Did he raise his fist on the Olympic podium? No. Did he shatter anyone’s mind with an act of unity? No. But he broke grounds that nobody could’ve expected to be broken without letting anyone question his character.
What Arthur did do was break grounds for athletes like Serena and Venus Williams to become stars in today’s era of sports. He also dedicated an entire foundation for the research of HIV/AIDS as he was died from the disease after being infected during a heart surgery.
In Richmond, we remember Arthur Ashe as a hero and I have a feeling not many people even know who he is, so now you do.