Ray Arsenault, Professor of History at USF St. Petersburg and a renowned civil rights historian, explores Ashe’s life in his new biography, Arthur Ashe: A Life. This biography marks 50 years since Ashe won the U.S. Open in New York, and offers an intimate look at Ashe through memoirs and interviews with those who knew him. If you're a tennis fan, Arensault's book will tell you everything you want to know about Arthur Ashe and American tennis in the last half of the 20th century.
Arsenault spent nearly a decade crafting Ashe’s life story, documenting his tremendous impact not only on tennis but on all sports, particularly for African Americans. As the first black player chosen for the U.S. Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open (the triple crown of tennis) Ashe established himself as one of the greatest ever to play the game.
From examining his birth certificate — it listed him as “Negro” — to his untimely death in 1998, Arsenault weaves the events of Ashe’s life into a fascinating tale of growth, persistence and quiet dignity. Through interviews with those who knew Ashe, an understanding of him emerges. Arsenault spoke with dozens to corroborate stories and memoirs from many sources to paint a lucid portrait of this athlete who’s often been compared to Jackie Robinson, another player who broke the color barrier in sports, a decade before Ashe.
Born in 1943 in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Ashe found few opportunities for African Americans to play tennis. However, by his teens, Althea Gibson opened the white world of tennis, taking top honors in the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open at Forest Hills. Black kids had a new hero in Gibson, and Ashe was among them. For black players, this was the opening salvo in the challenge to the segregated clubs of the 1950s.
The all-black American Tennis Association encouraged young aspirants, hosting tournaments in Washington, DC. Throughout his teens victories on the courts were tempered by discrimination — black players had separate facilities from other players, some of whom objected to his participation. At a segregated high school in Richmond, Ashe saw little chance of advancement, but a 1958 trip to Miami for a junior Davis Cup competition opened his eyes to opportunities for international play, and later his acceptance at UCLA furthered his career.
Documenting Ashe’s rise to the top, Arsenault weaves in contemporary civil rights, showing why some black leaders questioned his silence. When the Mississippi sharecropper and activist Fannie Lou Hamer was fighting to seat the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party at the Democratic Convention in 1964, Ashe was at a tournament, electing to remain silent on political issues.
It was a slow march for Ashe to come to activism. He joined the Army after UCLA and at West Point he headed the tennis team. Troubled by the tremendous losses of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, Ashe agreed to speak out on the role of black athletes and civil rights in Washington. The Washington Post featured a subhead in announcing the speech that read “Negro Tennis Star Emerges from Shell,” which Ashe found most embarrassing.
Ashe’s life took an unfortunate turn when he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1988, the result of tainted blood transfusions during his earlier heart surgeries in the '70s, before blood used in transfusions was routinely screened for AIDs. Though Ashe and his family chose to keep quiet about the diagnosis, Arsenault writes he was forced to speak out because USA Today was going to publish the story.
Despite his early death at 49, Ashe left a proud legacy of standing up for the rights of all. He protested discrimination in South Africa, boycotted tournaments and spoke out in TV interviews. Through interviews and often amusing anecdotes, Arsenault does an admirable job unraveling the complex political issues of international tennis, as well as introducing readers to an equally fascinating character in Arthur Ashe, who was respected by many for his thoughtful approach to the thorny issues of the life he was dealt. It would make a dynamite movie.
Read our interview with Ray Arsenault here.
Raymond Arsenault
Simon & Schuster, August 2018
784 pages
This article appears in Aug 16-23, 2018.