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(b. July 10, 1943, Richmond, Va.; d. February 6, 1993, New York, N.Y.), American tennis player, number one ranked player in the world in 1975, vocal critic of racial intolerance, historian of African American sports.
Ashe stressed importance of striving for excellence outside sports
Ashe was born July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia, to Mattie and Arthur Robert Ashe Sr. He began playing tennis at the age of ten under the guidance of Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, a prominent coach of African American youth from Charlottesville, Virginia. Under Johnson, Ashe won three American Tennis Association (ATA) Boy's championships, becoming the first African American junior to be ranked by the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA).
Between 1960 and 1963, Ashe won three ATA Men's Singles titles, became the first African American on the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team, and the first African American to win a USLTA national title in the South. His achievements earned him a full scholarship to the University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1966. While in college, Ashe won the U.S. intercollegiate singles championship, leading UCLA to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team championship.
After his career in tennis, Ashe became an eloquent spokesperson against racial intolerance. He was a critic of South Africa's racist system of apartheid and in the United States he created tennis programs to benefit
inner-city youth. He wrote a three-volume history of the African American athlete entitled A Hard Road To Glory (1988). In 1992 Ashe announced that he had contracted human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from a blood transfusion during one of his two heart bypass operations. After his announcement, he became an active leader in the fight to increase funding and awareness of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Suffering complications from AIDS, Ashe died in New York on February 6, 1993.
Arthur Ashe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedomfrom President Bill Clinton in 1993.
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