Arthur Ashe, a force on the court and for social change, to be honored in August

by Louis Bolling

Born July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia, Ashe was a 19-year-old UCLA student in 1963 when he was the first African-American named to the United States Davis Cup Team. Ten years later, he achieved another milestone, gaining entry into the apartheid-ruled country of South Africa to become the first Black man to play in South Africa’s national tennis tournament.

According to one black figure in South Africa, Ashe “was an inspiration and a challenge.” It isn’t hyperbole to assert that as did South African tennis professional Cliff Drysdale that Ashe’s trip was instrumental in beginning the two-decade process of dismantling apartheid.

Speaking in the documentary Black Champions (1986), Ashe said, “Having done so much travel, as a result of chasing the tennis ball all over the world, you also see that some of the same problems that beset ordinary people at home in America, in Virginia, in Richmond beset people all over the world. So, in that sense, problems are not local or provincial; they’re international. They’re the same concerns that everybody else has. But, I do feel like an internationalist because the barriers that divide people are artificial. Whether religious, racial, cultural, or linguistic, they’re all artificial.”

Now Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity members are planning a fundraising event, ALL L��VE, to commemorate those momentous occasions. Ashe was a member of the UCLA chapter as an undergraduate student. The event will be held on August 25 in New York City.

U.S. Tennis Association-affiliated Louis Bolling is involved in all things tennis, including writing on his blog, Louis-bolling.com, and at The Sports Column.