Arthur Ashe
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CHAPTER 9: ADVANTAGE ASHE
1 Gewecke int.
2 Einwick int; Perkins, Hood, and Packett, Richmond: One of America’s Best Tennis Towns, 5–6, 34–38, 44, 103–6; The WT Reporter, “A Visit to Richmond,” WT (July 1968). Einwick was born in Norfolk, attended high school in Philadelphia, and earned degrees at the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond. AATC, 131–32 (second q), 133–34; AA, 9 (first and third qs), 10–11 (fourth and fifth qs), 12 (sixth through eighth qs), 13–15 (ninth q); RNL, February 3, 1966; NYT, February 6–7, 1966; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 72. Named for Chief Justice John Marshall, a Virginia native who moved to Richmond in 1782 at the age of twenty-seven, the John Marshall Hotel was the largest hotel in the South when it opened in 1929. The hotel’s interior featured a grand St. Genevieve marble staircase and the Virginia Room, a ballroom that could accommodate 1,200 guests. See Robert P. Winthrop, Architecture in Downtown Richmond (Richmond: Junior Board of Historic Richmond Foundation, 1982). Following the meetings at the Marshall Hotel, Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. announced the Massive Resistance campaign on February 24, 1956. See Ely, The Crisis of Conservative Virginia; and Gates, The Making of Massive Resistance.
3 HRG, vol. 1, ix–xiv; DG, 174–75; box 9, AAP.
4 Glory Road (Walt Disney Pictures, directed by James Gartner, 2006); Don Haskins, with Dan Wetzel, Glory Road (New York: Hyperion, 2006); Charles H. Martin, Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Southern College Sports, 1890–1980 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), 90–119; Frank Fitzpatrick, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Kentucky, Texas Western, and the Game That Changed American Sports (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999); and Michael Wilbon, “A Win for Texas Western, A Triumph for Equality,” WP, January 13, 2006.
5 Atlanta Constitution, March–April 1966; Atlanta Daily World, April 1966; Bryant, The Last Hero, 299–324, 336–39. On Atlanta’s complex racial history in the twentieth century, see Ronald H. Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000); Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); and Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
6 Boston Globe, April 19–June 2, 1966; NYT, May 2, 1966; HRG, vol. 3, 56–57; Curry Kirkpatrick, “The Celtics Stretch an Era,” SI (April 11, 1966): 30–31; “Where the Negro Goes from Here in Sports,” Sport (September 1966): 56–59, 87–88; Goudsouzian, King of the Court, 179–200; Thomas, They Cleared the Lane, 211–37; George, Elevating the Game, 47–48, 105–9, 148–53, 188–90; David Halberstam, The Breaks of the Game (New York: Ballantine, 1981), 35–36, 180–81, 186–87; Maureen M. Smith, “Bill Russell: Pioneer and Champion of the Sixties,” in Wiggins, ed., Out of the Shadows, 223–39, especially 233–37; Bill Russell, as told to William McSweeney, Go Up for Glory (New York: Coward-McCann, 1966), 153–210; Bill Russell, with Alan Steinberg, Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend (New York: Collins, 2009), 146–47; Russell and Branch, Second Wind. On the general relationship between race and sports in Boston, see Howard Bryant, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston (New York: Routledge, 2002).
7 NYT, July 10, 1966. On Brown, see J. Thomas Jable, “Jim Brown: Superlative Athlete, Screen Star, Social Activist,” in Wiggins, ed., Out of the Shadows, 241–61; and HRG, vol. 3, 118–20.
8 DG, 40, 43, 175. On Jack Johnson, see HRG, vol. 1, 30–42, 113–15; Geoffrey C. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004); Randy Roberts, Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (New York: Free Press, 1983); and Gerald R. Gems, “Jack Johnson and the Quest for Racial Respect,” in Wiggins, ed., Out of the Shadows, 58–77. On Joe Louis, see Roberts, Joe Louis; Mead, Champion; and Anthony O. Edmonds, “Joe Louis, Boxing, and American Culture,” in Wiggins, ed., Out of the Shadows, 132–45. On Ali, see Muhammad Ali, The Greatest: My Own Story (New York: Random House, 1975), passim (qs); John Cottrell, Man of Destiny: The Story of Muhammad Ali (London: Frederick Muller, 1967); HRG, vol. 3, 82–87; Arthur Ashe, “Ali’s Greatest Opponents Could Be the ‘Jackals,’ ” RTD, September 14, 1980; Remnick, King of the World, 205–92; Gerald Early, “Muhammad Ali: Flawed Rebel with a Cause,” in Wiggins, ed., Out of the Shadows, 269–72; and Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 226–28, 588–89, 603, 605, 627, 735, 769. See also Bill Russell, with Tex Maule, “I Am Not Worried About Ali,” SI (June 19, 1967): 18–21. According to Pancho Gonzales, Ashe “worried about the Cassius Clay thing.” See Danzig and Schwed, eds., Fireside Book of Tennis, 453. Clay v. United States 403 U.S. 698 (1971).
9 LAT, November 10, 1965 (first q); NYT, November 10, 1965; CD, November 10, 1965; “Country Needs Men Like Him,” Redwood City Tribune, November 12, 1965 (second q), copy in Arthur Ashe File, UCLASIO.
10 AA, 9–15; NYT, February 6–7, 10, 13–14, 16, 18–21, 25–27, 1966.
11 AA, 191; DG, 185 (q). Cullman was later instrumental in creating the Virginia Slims women’s tour. See Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 272–79.
12 AA, 76 (q); Patricia Battles Davis/Billy Davis int.
13 NYT, March 19, 1966; AA, 76–77 (q); Pasarell int. At the time of the engagement, the young woman later known as Patricia Battles used the name Diane Seymour. Her father was Lloyd Seymour of Hartford, Connecticut, and her mother was Doris Battles of White Plains, New York. She was a graduate of Stamford Catholic High School. She had worked for the Southern New England Telephone Company for several years. See “First Negro Davis Cupper,” Ebony (October 1963): 154.
14 NYT, February 22, March 27, 31, April 1, 2, 4, 1966; Pasarell int.
15 Chandler Brossard, “Arthur Ashe: Hottest New Tennis Star,” Look 30 (April 19, 1966): 110–14; Claude Lewis, “Arthur Ashe: I Want to Be No. 1 Without an Asterisk,” Sport (1966): 35, 96–98; Deford, “An Understudy Takes Charge”; OTC, 51 (q).
16 OTC, 61 (qs); Singleton, Slaughter, Carson, Nash, Anderson, McNichols, and Tuttle ints.
17 OTC, 61 (first and second qs), 62 (third and fourth qs); DG, 113; AA, 88 (fifth q). Carson and Singleton ints. On Karenga and his organization US (“Us Slaves”), see Scott Brown, Fighting for US (New York: NYU Press, 2003); and Maulana Ron Karenga, The Quoteable Karenga (Los Angeles: US Organization, 1967). See also Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014).
18 Rogers and Einwick ints; AA, 73–74, 88 (q), 185.
19 AA, 89–90 (qs); Mayfield int.
20 AA, 107–8 (qs).
21 AA, 95 (qs). On Carmichael, see Peniel Joseph, Stokely: A Life (New York: Basic Civitas, 2014); Stokely Carmichael, with Michael Thelwell, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (New York: Scribner, 2005); and Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation (New York: Random House, 1967). On Brown, see H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah al-Amin), Die Nigger Die! A Political Autobiography of Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2002). On the Black Panthers, see Josh Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr., Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013); and the excellent documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Firelight Films, directed by Stanley Nelson Jr., 2015).
22 DG, 113 (qs). On the ideological gap between Du Bois and Washington, see W. E. B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1903); Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1901); W. Fitzhugh Brundage, ed., Booker T. Washington and Black Progress: Up from Slavery 100 Years Later (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003); David Levering Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), 261–64, 273–77, 286–88, 302–4, 311–13, 336, 362, 369, 401, 407, 434, 439, 442, 479, 494, 501–3, 513, 563; and Robert J. Norrell, Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washing
ton (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 7–8, 14, 180, 224–33, 268, 276–80, 293–96, 316–32, 433–39.
23 Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 5–559; John Lewis, with Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 363–69; Joseph, Stokely, 5–99.
24 Adam Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014), 3–62, 137–43 (second and third qs), 144–247; David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: William Morrow, 1986), 484, 487 (first q); Joseph, Stokely, 1–2, 101–17 (fifth q), 127 (fourth q); Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 475–95; Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 308–22.
25 Joseph, Stokely, 123–37 (q), 138–47; Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads, 250–62.
26 Pasarell, Crookenden, and Riessen ints; NYT, June 15–23, 1966.
27 DG, 116–17,
28 OTC, 97–98 (qs).
29 Ibid., 97–98 (q); AA, 182; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 75–76.
30 OTC, 98 (qs); AA, 182–83; Nicholson and Johnnie Ashe ints; Arthur and Johnnie (ESPN Films, 30 for 30 documentary, directed by Tate Donovan, 2013).
31 BCHT, 135–37; NYT, September 1, 11, 1966.
32 NYT, August 16–30, 1966; AA, 108 (qs).
33 Frank Deford, “Service, But First a Smile,” SI (August 29, 1966): 47 (qs). On Deford’s long and distinguished career as a sportswriter, see Frank Deford, Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter (New York: Grove, 2013); and You Write Better than You Play: The Best of Frank Deford (ESPN Classic Films, directed by Neil Leifer, 2005).
34 Deford, “Service, But First a Smile,” 49–50 (qs).
35 NYT, August 28, 30–31, September 1–2, 4–5, 7 (q), 9–12, 1966; BCHT, 137–39, 460–61, 618–19; Newcombe and Graebner ints.
36 NYT, September 11 (q), 12, 18–19, 28–29, October 1, 3, 1966; Pasarell int.
37 AA, 179, 180 (first and second qs), 181 (fourth and fifth qs); NYT, October 14, 24–26, 28, 30–31, November 4–8 (third q), 1966; BCHT, 631–32, 706–7; Richey and Ralston ints.
38 AA, 181; NYT, November 8, 26–28, 30, December 1–2, 4–8, 10–11, 13, 15–19, 29, 1966, January 3–6, 11–12, 14–19, 21–22, 24–25 (q), 26–31, 1967; Dave Anderson, “U.S. Image in Tennis Turning Pale,” NYT, November 8, 1966; Patricia Battles Davis/Billy Davis, Richey, Ralston, and Newcombe ints; BCHT, 139, 361.
39 Harry Gordon, “Memo from Down Under: What We Can Learn About Tennis,” NYT, November 27, 1966 (qs).
40 NYT, February 3–6, 1966; Pasarell and Drysdale ints; Drysdale int, SSAA.
41 On the changing streetscape and social character of Jackson Ward and adjacent neighborhoods during the 1960s, see Robert P. Winthrop, The Jackson Ward Historic District (Richmond: Richmond Department of Planning and Community Development, 1978); “Jackson Ward Historic District,” available online at dig.library.vcu.edu; Selden Richardson, Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond (Charleston: The History Press, 2008); Keshia A. Case, Richmond (VA) (Then and Now) (Charleston: Arcadia, 2006); and Robert P. Winthrop, Richmond’s Architecture (Richmond: Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1981). See also Campbell, Richmond’s Unhealed History, for a discussion of the city’s social transformation and historical legacies. Deford, “Service, But First a Smile,” 49 (q); LG, 54–58; McPhee int. The ten-court complex at Battery Park eventually gained a reputation as the best cluster of public courts in Richmond and became an important venue for inner-city tennis programs such as the National Junior Tennis League. The courts and the adjoining community center have played a large role in the economic and cultural renewal of the Battery Park neighborhood in recent years, and local leaders marked Arthur Ashe’s seventy-fourth birthday in July 2017 by adding a mural depicting his life. Perkins, Hood, and Packett, Richmond: One of America’s Best Tennis Towns, 7, 24; Jonathan Davis and Grover ints; Courtney J. Cole, “Court Murals Honor Life and Legacy of RVA Native Arthur Ashe,” www.wric.com, July 13, 2017.
42 AA, 69–70, 182 (qs), 183–92; Johnnie Ashe int; Arthur and Johnnie; “Arthur Ashe’s Little Brother and the Sacrifice He Made,” RTD, October 27, 2014; NYT, February 8, 10–21, 1966; Nicholson, Pasarell, and Gewecke ints.
43 Allison Danzig, “Ashe Urges Stress on Clay,” NYT, February 12, 1967 (qs); AA, 184–85.
44 AA, 73 (fourth q), 75 (qs); Reed and Crookenden ints.
45 AA, 186 (first q), 187 (second and third qs), 190 (fourth q).
46 Ibid., 189 (first q); IRAA, 158–61; “Arthur Ashe and NJTL Legacy Lives on,” USTA News, available at www.midwest.usta.com. In 2009, the National Junior Tennis League was renamed the National Junior Tennis and Learning Network (still known as NJTL). At that point, the NJTL had 550 chapters in forty-six states, with a total of 220,000 participants. Beck, Desdunes, Pasarell, Snyder, Karin Buchholz; Hartman, and Dowdell ints; David Dinkins int, SSAA.
CHAPTER 10: OPENINGS
1 NYT, February 22–23, 25, 28, March 1, 4–6, 1967.
2 OTC, 81 (qs); Pasarell and Patricia Battles Davis/Billy Davis ints.
3 NYT, March 12, 26–28, April 1–2, 1967; “Sheridan Snyder Given ITA Achievement Award” (2008), and “Sheridan Snyder Tennis Center” (2012), available online at www.virginiasports.com; “Sherry Snyder: Court Reform,” New York (June 29, 1970). Later a biotech entrepreneur and philanthropist, Snyder continued his involvement with his alma mater, and in 2012 the University of Virginia’s tennis center was renamed the Sheridan G. Snyder Tennis Center. Snyder int.
4 NYT, April 28–30, May 1–2, 19, 25, 1967.
5 Ibid., May 7, 1967; Pasarell and Young ints. On Maddox’s demagogic career, see Robert Sherrill, Gothic Politics in the Deep South: Stars of the New Confederacy (New York: Ballantine, 1969), 277–301; and Bruce Galphin, The Riddle of Lester Maddox (Atlanta: Camelot Publishing, 1968).
6 NYT, May 25–27 (first and second qs), 28–30 (third q), 1967; BCHT, 141. Loyo-Mayo and Lara caused quite a stir at the 1966 U.S. Doubles Championships at Longwood when they outlasted the Spaniards Manolo Santana and Luis García in five sets—a marathon match that went a record-setting 105 games.
7 Nicholson int; NYT, May 31, June 7, 9–11, 18–20 (second q), 21, 1967; El Universo, June 21, 1967 (first q); OTC, 98–99; BCHT, 140–41. On Ecuador’s distinctive national culture, see Carlos de la Torre and Steve Striffler, eds., The Ecuador Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009).
8 OTC, 99 (q); Nicholson int.
9 Pasarell and Nicholson ints; Neil Amdur, “Conversations with Lt. Arthur Ashe: Part 1,” WT (April 1968): 52–54; Neil Amdur, “Conversations with Lt. Arthur Ashe, Part 2,” WT (May 1968): 28–29; Arthur and Johnnie.
10 NYT, July 19–24, 1967; Riessen int.
11 NYT, July 26–27, 29, 31 (qs), August 1, 1967; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 77. After leading Stanford to an undefeated season and a Rose Bowl victory in 1940, Frankie Albert (1920–2002) played quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers for seven seasons. He is widely considered to be the first T-formation quarterback in modern football history. NYT, September 9, 2002.
12 NYT, August 19, 1967 (q).
13 Ibid., August 31, September 1–2, 21, 29, 1967.
14 BCHT, 117, 120–21, 126, 138–39; Eugene L. Scott, “Volley for Open Tennis,” NYT, December 10, 1967 (qs); Richard Evans, Open Tennis, 1968–1989: The Players, the Politics, the Pressures, the Passions, and the Great Matches (Lexington: Stephen Greene Press, 1990), 3–18. See also the Tennis Channel documentary Barnstormers.
15 Evans, Open Tennis, 3–5 (qs), 13, 17–18; BCHT, 138–39.
16 On Kelleher (1913–2012), who was appointed a federal judge in 1970, see BCHT, 594–95. BCHT, 139, 144; Evans, Open Tennis, 18–21 (first q), 22–25 (second q); Allison Danzig, “Tennis Faces Crisis,” NYT, December 15, 1967.
18 NYT, January 14–15, 22, 29–30, February 4–5, 11–12, 15–16, 18–19, 25, 28–29, March 3–4, 24–31, April 1, 1968.
19 On Lamar Hunt (1932–2006), see BCHT, 591; Michael MacCambridge, Lamar Hunt: A Life in Sports (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McNeel, 2012); and David A. F. Sweet, Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Professional Sports (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2010). Evans, Open Tennis, 8–9 (q), 10–17; BCHT, 138, 141; Danzig and Schwed, eds., Fireside Book of Tennis, 849–52; Dell int.
20 Dell int; BCHT, 140, 152, 570; Bodo, Ashe vs Connors, 1; IRAA, 32, 104 Evans, Open Tennis, 7, 32–34; OTC, 103–6; Arthur and Johnnie. On Shriver, see Scott Stossel, Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2004).
21 Rogers int; OTC, 101, 103 (qs); DG, 114.
22 Rogers int; WP, March 6 (first q), 11, 1968; DG, 114–15 (qs), 145: Hall, Arthur Ashe, 84–86.
23 WP, March 11, 1968; DG, 114–15 (first q); Neil Amdur, “Ashe, Net Pro of Future, Prepares Civil Rights Talk,” NYT, January 28, 1968; OTC, 102; Rogers and Nicholson ints.
24 OTC, 103 (first q); DG, 145–46 (second and third qs); Rogers int.
25 Phil Finch, “Ashe Isn’t Afraid to Tell It Like It Is, Baby,” Washington Daily News, March 18, 1968 (qs), copy in folder 1, box 35, AAP.
26 Finch, “Ashe Isn’t Afraid to Tell It Like It Is, Baby” (qs); NYT, February 9, 12, March 26 (third q); BAA, April 16, 1968; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 86–87.
27 Rogers int; NYT, April 12, 1968; OTC, 102 (qs); DG, 113–15; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 86; Hugh McIlvanney, “Ashe Tries to Knock Down Racial Wall,” WP, July 14, 1968.
28 OTC, 89, 103 (first q); Martin Luther King, Jr. to Arthur Ashe, February 7, 1968, folder 1, box 2 AAP; Young int.
29 Dell int; NYT, April 28, May 4–6 (second q), 24–25, 27, June 2–3, 6–7 (first q), 10; OTC, 104–5 (third q), 120–21, 138 (fourth q); DG, 114, 118; Evans, Open Tennis, 32–34. On the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, see William W. Turner and John Christian, The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (New York: Basic Books, 2006); Mel Ayton, The Forgotten Terrorist: Sirhan Sirhan and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2007); and David Margolick, The Promise and the Dream (New York: Rosetta Books, 2018), chapter 14.