Arthur Ashe As A Black Man example essay topic

Arthur Ashe did many things in his life; he was a great tennis player, father, son, role model, and social activist. It is amazing to think that Arthur Ashe as a black man was able to achieve all he did coming from where he did, and that he was able to do it in a society dominated by white people. Born in Richmond, Virginia to a lower class black family, Arthur Ashe had to deal with many hardships at an early age. Despite the hardships he was able to succeed in the game of tennis, and won many major tournaments. Away from tennis, Arthur Ashe was an important activist against apartheid in Africa and he also had a voice in the United States. When he contracted the AIDS virus, he became an activist on the AIDS epidemic.

After his death, Arthur Ashe was honored in his home state of Virginia like only confederate general Stonewall Jackson had been before. Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 10, 1943 to mother, Mattie Cunningham, and to father, Arthur Ashe Sr. He always had a strong relationship with his parents. His mother died in 1950, when he was only seven, of complications in pregnancy. It was very hard on him to live without her. "I eventually had no memory of what she was actually like, how her voice sounded, how her touch felt. I wanted desperately to know these things".

Although he does not remember much of her, Ashe's mother exerted a very strong influence on him in the few years she was with him. "My last memory of her alive; I was finishing breakfast and she was sitting in the side of the doorway looking lovingly at me. I remember the last time I saw her, in a coffin at home, she was wearing her best dress, made of pink satin" (Ashe and Rampersad 3-5). Ashe's father was the single greatest influence on his life. He was both a father and a mother to him from 1950 onwards.

"I guess I have never misbehaved because I am afraid that if I did anything wrong, my father would come straight up from Virginia and find me wherever I happened to be, and kick my ass" (Ashe and Rampersad 4-6). Because Ashe was born into a lower class black family in a society tainted with prejudice and segregation, like any typical black adolescent, he had to deal with many hardships early in his life. As a boy, Ashe was very bright and innocent, and loved to read. He always had a hard time understanding segregation and racism when he was young.

Ashe once asked a man on a bus to get up and give his mother a seat. The man replied by saying: "if you have the nerve to ask me that, I will get up and give her a seat". (Grimsley 26) When Ashe was seven he began playing tennis, the game that would shape the rest of his life. He showed surprising flair for the game as soon as he picked up a racquet. One day, Ashe was playing tennis with his father at a public court. Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, the man who taught Althea Gibson, the first black tennis player to win a major tournament, saw Ashe playing and offered to teach him the finer points of the game of tennis.

Ashe continued to play with Dr. Robert Walter Johnson over the years. Dr. Johnson taught Ashe to have good court etiquette, and to repress his anger on the tennis court. This trait was a characteristic that stuck with Ashe throughout his extensive career, and it was a trait that he became very popular for. Once Ashe reached his teen years he began to play in some junior tournaments and to make a name for himself. He developed a very tough serve and volley style of play that made him virtually unbeatable on grass. He was highly regarded on the A BATA (All Black American Tennis Association).

He became the first black person to win the USTA (United States Lawn Tennis Association) interscholastic tournament. He was featured in Sports Illustrated's, Faces In The Crowd, and he also won several amateur and junior events. Despite his success as a tennis player, he was constantly being banned from tournaments because he was black. When he reached his senior year in school, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, which was a place where he hoped he could escape the racial injustices of Richmond, Virginia, and play against whites and blacks all year round. (Sports Century) Ashe graduated high school with the highest grades in his class, and he received an athletic scholarship to UCLA to play tennis. He was able to excel and thrive at UCLA both academically and athletically, although racism and prejudice always seemed to find a way to bring him down.

At one point, he said to one of his friends on his tennis team that he "felt like a piece of coal in a snow bank" at most of the clubs he played at. One year, the tennis team received an invitation to play at the Balboa Club. The invitation extended to every player except Arthur. The coach told Ashe that if he wanted to fight it, he would support Ashe. But Arthur felt that it just was not his time, and he chose not to make too much noise on the issue.

He found a way to not let prejudice hold him down, and he really stood out in his four years at UCLA. In 1963 he was named to the U.S. Davis cup team, and became the first black man to do so. Later the same year he competed in Wimbledon, a grand slam tournament, for the first time. In 1965 his senior year at UCLA he led his tennis team to win the NCAA men's singles title. That same year he graduated with a degree in business administration, and at the top of his class.

(Towel 16) During Arthur Ashe's career he competed in many tournaments, but his favorite of all of them were his many years of Davis Cup competition. From 1963, when he was first named to the U.S. Davis Cup team, until the end of Ashe's career and involvement with tennis, Davis Cup was a very important part of his life. He was named to 10 different Davis Cup teams; he played from 1963-70, 1775, 1976 and 1978, he compiled a 27-5 record in Davis Cup competition. He was also named Davis Cup captain after he retired, and lead the U.S. team to two titles. He said his favorite garment that he wore was his U.S. Davis Cup team jacket, and he was often seen wearing it. (Official web site) In 1968, a year before his father died, still a young amateur, Arthur Ashe was finally rewarded for his long years of hard work and courage on the tennis court.

He won the first ever U.S. Open, a grand slam tennis tournament. The win was his first major tournament win. He defeated Tom Oakker in the finals and was crowned champion, and he became the only black man to do so to date. After the match, he and his aging father had a very emotional a heart-warming embrace on the tennis court. It was what most people today remember about the match. In 1969 Ashe turned pro through a corporation he started called PEI, or Players Enterprises Incorporated.

Later that same year Arthur's mentor and best friend, his father, died of a stroke. This took a large emotional and psychological toll on Arthur, and at this time, he went into a slump. The slump affected both his life and his tennis. He lost 14 of 19 finals, and people began to question his ability to win the big tournaments, despite winning the 1970 Australian Open his second of his three grand slam titles. (Tennis Player: Arthur Ashe) During his few years of hard times on the tennis court people began to notice something very unusual about Arthur Ashe, that thing was Ashe's etiquette both on the court and off. At a time when many players, like jimmy Connors, were constant off-the-wall antics on the court and off, Ashe was a player who never showed much emotion, he just played the game and found a way to repress his anger and emotions inside of him self.

Ashe has learned this from his mentor Dr. Robert Walter Johnson and with it he earned himself a very respectable reputation. "If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me. Nothing comes even close to it in importance. Now and then, I have wondered whether my reputation matters too much to me; but I can no more easily renounce my concern with what other people think of me than I can will myself to stop breathing. No matter what I do, or where I do it, I feel the eyes of others on me, judging me". (Grimsley 46) A large part of Arthur Ashe's career was his on-going rivalry and disputes with Jimmy Connors, who was a very successful tennis player at the time.

There was one instance, before the 1974 Wimbledon, where Arthur called Jimmy Connors unpatriotic for not playing Davis Cup for the U.S. Connors came back with a $5 million dollar libel suit. This dispute provided an interesting back-drop to the 1974 Wimbledon finals which saw Connors against Ashe in the finals. Ashe said the night before the match that he felt he was unbeatable. In the match, Ashe used a strategy where he gave Connors little pace on the ball and brought him to the net; and on each change over between games, Ashe would meditate, driving Connors crazy.

Ashe ended up winning the match 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, and he said that when he was serving for the match at 5-4, he was thinking how good the strawberries and cream were going to taste at the after party. "When I took match point, all the years, all the effort, all the support I received over the years came together". By winning that match, he achieved a life-long dream of being ranked number one in the world, and that in 40 years he would be able to tell his grand kids that in 1974 he was the best tennis player in the world. Also he became the first and only African American male to be ranked number one and exceed $100,000 dollars in annual earnings, and silenced all the critics that said he was not good enough the win the big tournaments. (Sports Century) By 1976 when Ashe was 36, he felt that it was about time he settled down and started a family. During this year he met a girl named Jean Moutoussany.

She was a photographer at a tournament he was playing in. A friend introduced him to her, and he said that when he met her, he knew she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Four months after they met, they were married. She gave Ashe a love that he had not experienced since his mother died.

She stuck with him through the thick and thin. (Sports Century) Throughout Ashe's life, he always had to deal with the hardships of being a black male in a white dominated society. He is quoted as saying that it was the hardest thing he ever had to deal with. When he was a young, up and coming tennis player in college, he began to feel the heat of the black power movement. Many black activists felt that Ashe was not a sufficient enough activist; he was asked to join the black power movement but he thought better of it, and said it just was not his style. Many black rights groups began to criticize him for not speaking out for black rights.

Ashe replied by saying: "I get the feeling sometimes that militants would rather lose gallantly than win practically, and I would rather win practically". Both blacks and whites wanted to use him because both sides respected him. The whites wanted to show how tolerant they were of the black community, and the blacks wanted Ashe to use his fame and fortune and respect to gain equal rights for blacks. But Ashe remained quiet on both sides until he felt like it was his time to be vocal.

Over time, the black society forgot about him and stopped looking at him as being a possible factor in the fight for black rights. A movie was going to be done about Ashe and the actor chosen to play him was Robert Redford (a white male). This showed that he was looked at as being "whiter than the white tennis player". (Wiggins 89) It was not until 1968, after Ashe had won the first ever U.S. Open, that Arthur felt that it was finally his time to begin his protest. But he was not going to join any black power movements or engage in militant violence. He was going to do his own thing, his own way.

His way was to protest apartheid in South Africa. It was not easy for Ashe to protest. He was rejected twice, in 1968 and '69, for a visa to go to South Africa to not only protest but to play tennis as well. "The South African government saw Arthur as a threat to the African way of life. They did not want him to come to South Africa and have whites and blacks see how successful he was and what a great man he was.

It was against everything they were trying to promote". (Sports Century Cliff Drysdale). He did his best to protest and do what he could do about apartheid from the U.S. by calling for South Africa to be removed from the International Lawn Tennis Federation and Davis Cup, and he also spoke at a U.N. meeting about apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela. Finally in 1973, Arthur was approved for a visa to go to South Africa. While he was there, he played in the South African National Championships.

He asked to have un-segregated seating at his matches; otherwise he would not play. Ashe ended up winning the doubles title with Tom Oakker, and he played his rival, Jimmy Connors, in the singles final. Connors said it was like playing Ashe in Harlem. "Ashe was not just playing for himself, he was playing for an entire people. His every victory was like a victory for the black people over the system". .

(Sports Century) Also during his visit to South Africa, Ashe visited Soweto, a poverty stricken all black village. When Arthur was there, 500 children mobbed him; they just wanted to get a piece of him. Arthur was a true inspiration to all the people of the village. The people there called him "See Poh" which was Zulu for "a gift". After his Trip to South Africa, Ashe was finally looked at as a social activist. Although his trip made a lot of noise, it did not prove to have a large effect on apartheid, which still rolled on in South Africa.

(Towel 53) During the late 1970's, Arthur's career was winding down. He had made a gallant comeback to reach number 6 in the world at the age of 36 when tragedy struck the Ashe family. Arthur experienced a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. Ashe took a short break from tennis and hoped to, in about a year, return to the game. He was asked by a reporter at a press conference if he thought a comeback was a possibility. He replied by saying: "yes I think a comeback is a big possibility".

After a year of rest Arthur Ashe began training to make a comeback in the game of tennis, but chest pains during running one day forced him to rethink his choice. He underwent double bypass surgery and received a blood transfusion to bolster his strength. In April of 1980 Ashe announced his retirement from the game of tennis. Ashe's career ended with a record of 818 wins and 260 loses, 33 titles. (Sports Century) After Arthur Ashe retired from the game of tennis, he stayed very close to the game. In 1981 a year after his retirement he was named the U.S. Davis Cup captain.

He was Captain for five years and led the U.S. team to titles in 1981 and '82. He also got very involved with the National Junior Tennis league, and very involved with children. He did his best to show children, and especially black children, alternatives to drugs. He also acted as a television commentator and analyst for many tennis tournaments. In 1985 Ashe was inducted into the international Tennis Hall of Fame. He became the first black male to do so.

(Cnn SI) While still staying close to tennis, he also put a lot of emphasis on things away from the game of tennis. He got involved with college athlete standards in education' and he was a large supporter of academics before athletics. This put Ashe at odds with many black rights leaders who said that this idea was not good for the black community. They complained that he was only further victimizing the victim, because many black students could not make the grade. But Arthur was not going to apologize for athletes who had bad scores and continued with his support of high academic standards.

During the year of 1988 Ashe found a new way to further intensify his messages to the world by publishing A Hard Road to Glory, a three volume history of the black athlete in America. The books talk about the struggles fought and progress made by African-American athletes from 1619 to 1946. These three books are the most comprehensive ever published on African-American athletes. Ashe also continued with his protest of apartheid. He was arrested numerous times outside the South African embassy in Washington DC, and he founded the, Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid. The organization spoke against apartheid from the U.S. and spoke out for Nelson Mandela's release.

Ashe said it was one of the happiest days of his life when Nelson Mandela was released, and Mandela said that Ashe was one of the first people he wanted to meet. (Sports Century) In the summer of 1988, another tragedy struck Ashe and his family. One morning after he woke up, Ashe received paralysis in his right hand. He went to the hospital and after a series of tests and brain surgery, it was determined that he had toxoplasmosis, a bacterial infection often present in people with HIV. After some more testing, it was concluded that Arthur Ashe had contracted the AIDS virus. After his wife was tested for the disease and tests came out negative, it was determined that he had contracted it from the blood transfusion he had received after his second heart surgery in 1983.

Contracting the disease hit him hard, but it did not knock him down. He and his family decided to keep the fact that he had AIDS private. Despite contracting the fatal illness, Ashe continued on with his life and continued with his protest and fighting the injustices of this world. In 1992 Ashe shocked the world by announcing himself that he had contracted the AIDS virus. As he had done in the past with many other things, he became a very large activist on AIDS. He began the Arthur Ashe program in AIDS and on World AIDS Day, he spoke at the United Nations on the global issue of AIDS.

He said that the U.N. should boost the world funding for AIDS research to increase knowledge of the disease and its effects. (Program In AIDS) In his last years, Arthur worked vigorously on his last statement to the world and to his family. His memoir and autobiography is called Days of Grace. The book talked about all his memories in his life; it talked about what it was like growing up in segregated Virginia, to his fading memories of his mother, his childhood and what it was like to grow up under his father.

He wrote about what it was like to grow up in a white dominated world and "The Burden of Race" on and off the court, and also, "Striving and Achieving" in the world of tennis. The most touching part of the book was the ten-page letter he wrote to his daughter. In the letter he said what any typical parent would have liked to say to their child in a lifetime. He talked about change, not doing drugs, and told her to take care of her mother.

He reminded her that he would always be there when he said: "When you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or if you stumble fall and don't know if you can get up again, think of me, I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on". (Ashe Rampersad 293-304) On February 6, 1993 Arthur Ashe Jr. died of AIDS-related pneumonia. When he died, he was honored only like General Stonewall Jackson had been before. His body lay to rest in state at the Governor's Mansion in Richmond. More than 5,000 mourners lined up outside to file past the casket during his funeral. Ashe was the first person to lie in state at the mansion since Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 1863.

Even after his death, Ashe stirred controversy when on July of 1996, what would have been Ashe's 53rd birthday, a statue of Ashe was erected on Richmond's Monument Avenue. The statue is a standing contrast to the Confederate war heroes whose monuments line the avenue as well. Ashe is depicted carrying books in one hand and a tennis racket in the other. Not everyone was pleased with the statue. Richard Hines with the Sons of Confederate Veterans unfurled the battle flag from his great grandfather's regiment and called the new statue an insult to history and heritage.

But the statue remained and still remains standing. (Even After Death) In 1997 Arthur Ashe's days of grace were honored again when the USTA named the $254 million dollar center piece of the newly built National Tennis Center in New York in Arthur's honor. In the unveiling ceremony USTA president, Harry Marmion, said: "Arthur Ashe was an outstanding tennis player, but we are naming our new stadium in his honor because Arthur Ashe was the finest human being the sport of tennis has ever known". The tennis center is now the home for the U.S. Open, the tournament that gave Ashe respect as an up-and-coming tennis player. The stadium is called Arthur Ashe Stadium and with 23,000 seats, it is the backdrop to the finals of the U.S. Open every year. (Cnn SI) There are few real heroes from the world of professional sports, but Arthur Ashe is certainly an exception, coming from where he did, it is amazing to think that Arthur Ashe was able to accomplish all he did.

818 career wins, 33 titles and 3 grand slam titles were among the personal accolades he was able to achieve. But for Ashe, it was not always about personal accolades; it was more about using his status as an elite tennis player to bring about change in the world and to benefit others. Arthur Ashe was quoted on saying: "If I was remembered as just a tennis player my life would be a failure". But it would have been impossible for him to be considered as "just a tennis player", because his playing tennis alone made him more than just a tennis player.