Arthur Ashe Biography (1943–1993)
Arthur Ashe was the first African American to win the men's singles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first African American man to be ranked No. 1 in the world.
Who Was Arthur Ashe?
Arthur Ashe became the first (and remains the only) African American male tennis player to win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon singles titles. He was also the first African American man to earn the No. 1 ranking in the world and the first to earn induction into the Tennis Hall of Fame. Always an activist, when Ashe learned that he had contracted AIDS via a blood transfusion, he turned his efforts to raising awareness about the disease, before finally succumbing to it on February 6, 1993.
Early Life
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. was born on July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. The older of Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cunningham's two sons, Arthur Ashe Jr. blended finesse and power to forge a groundbreaking tennis game.
Ashe's childhood was marked by hardship and opportunity. Under his mother's direction, Ashe was reading by the age of four. But his life was turned upside down two years later, when Mattie passed away.
Ashe's father, fearful of seeing his boys fall into trouble without their mother's discipline, began running a tighter ship at home. Ashe and his younger brother, Johnnie, went to church every Sunday, and after school they were required to come straight home, with Arthur Sr. closely watching the time: "My father ... kept me home, out of trouble. I had exactly 12 minutes to get home from school, and I kept to that rule through high school."
Early Tennis Career
About a year after his mother's death, Ashe discovered the game of tennis, picking up a racket for the first time at the age of seven at a park not far from his home. Sticking with the game, Ashe eventually caught the attention of Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Jr., a tennis coach from Lynchburg, Virginia, who was active in the Black tennis community. Under Johnson's direction, Ashe excelled.
In his first tournament, Ashe reached the junior national championships. Driven to excel, he eventually moved to St. Louis to work closely with another coach, winning the junior national title in 1960 and again in 1961. Ranked the fifth-best junior player in the country, Ashe accepted a scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with a degree in business administration.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Sunday, April 10th 2022 at 9:45AM
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