Arthur Ashe: Grace under pressure

Arthur Ashe was an American tennis champion who, with quiet courage, crusaded against racial prejudice, apartheid and AIDS. He promoted education for needy kinds, was a voice for minorities and was a role model for young black athletes. He was determined to succeed and to help others along the way, even as others had helped him, especially Dr. Walter Johnson, a Lynchburg, Virginia physician who “assisted black tennis prodigies.” Arthur Ashe was a gentleman of strong faith who summed up his philosophy in this statement:

“I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.” 

Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1943, when racial segregation was the law. He loved the sport of tennis, but he could not play in the usual junior tournaments because he was African-American. His mother died with he was 6, and later he and his father moved to St. Louis where he attended Sumner High School and continued to excel in tennis. In 1962, as the fifth-ranked junior in the nation, Ashe received a full scholarship to U.C.L.A. In 1963, he became a member of the prestigious Davis Cup Tennis Team, and in 1965, he won the U.S. Intercollegiate singles title. When he graduated from U.C.L.A. in 1966, he was described as “the most promising tennis player in the world.” He served in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant from 1966 to 1968, and there continued his tennis career …

1) In 1968, he won both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open championships.

2) He was on the Davis Cup team for 10 years, and served as captain of the team for five years, 1981-1985.

3) In 1973, he was the first black tennis player to win a title in South Africa.

4) He won the Wimbleton title for singles in 1975, and became the No. 1 tennis player in the world. 

5) He retired in 1980, with over 800 career victories, and was elected to the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

6) He had heart surgeries in 1979 and 1983, and contracted the AIDS virus through tainted blood transfusion during the 1983 procedure. 

7) In 1997, four years after his death from AIDS in 1993, the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, was opened and dedicated to his honor. 

8) In July 1996, a 12-foot bronze statue of Arthur Ashe was unveiled on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va. He is remembered in honor.