Arthur Ashe

by Raymond Arsenault

  38 BCHT, 154; PIM, 14 (q).

  39 OTC, 220–21, 225, 228; BCHT, 155, 462; NYT, June 28–29, September 2–11, November 30, December 4, 1970.

  40 NYT, August 18, 29–31, September 1, 1970; WP, August 15, 1970; OTC, 140, 224; BCHT, 156; Collins and Stan Smith ints. Held in Cleveland, the Challenge Match saw an American sweep, 5–0, as Ashe extended his Davis Cup singles record to 23–3.

  41 Collins and Stan Smith ints; IRAA, 125–26. On Kenyatta and Kenya, see Jomo Kenyatta, The Challenge of Uhuru: The Progress of Kenya, 1968 to 1970 (Nairobi: East African Publishing, 1971); Jomo Kenyatta, Suffering Without Bitterness (Nairobi: East African Publishing, 1971); and Guy Arnold, Kenyatta and the Politics of Kenya (London: Dent, 1974).

  42 NYT, October 24, 1970; Collins and Stan Smith ints; OTC, 141 (qs); IRAA, 128. On Julius Nyerere and Tanzania, see Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Socialism: A Selection from the Writing and Speeches, 1965–67 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968); Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Development: A Selection from the Writing and Speeches, 1968–73 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974); and Raymond F. Hopkins, Political Roles in a New State: Tanzania’s First Decade (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971).

  43 NYT, October 27, 1970 (qs); Collins and Stan Smith ints; IRAA, 128–29. On Zambia and Kenneth Kaunda, see Andrew Sardanis, Africa: Another Side of the Coin: Northern Rhodesia’s Final Years and Zambia’s Nationhood (London: I. B. Tauris, 2003); Andrew Roberts, A History of Zambia (New York: Africana Publishing, 1975); Richard Hall, The High Price of Principles: Kaunda and the White South (New York: Africana Publishing, 1969); and Fergus MacPherson, Kenneth Kaunda: The Times and the Man (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).

  44 NYT, August 17, November 1, 1970; Collins and Stan Smith ints; OTC, 142–43 (qs). On Uganda, see Phares Mutibwa, Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992). General Idi Amin’s brutal regime took power in 1971, the year after Ashe’s visit. On Amin, see Andrew Rice, The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda (New York: Picador, 2010). On Nigeria and the Biafran civil war, see Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, A History of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (New York: Penguin, 2012); Frederick Forsyth, The Biafra Story (Baltimore: Penguin, 1969); Luke N. Aneke, The Untold Story of the Nigeria-Biafra War (New York: Triumph, 2008); and Alfred Uzokwe, Surviving in Biafra: The Story of the Nigerian Civil War (New York: Writers Advantage, 2003).

  45 Collins and Stan Smith ints. On Ghana and Nkrumah, see Basil Davidson, Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah (New York: Praeger, 1974); C. L. R. James, Kwame Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution (Westport, CT: L. Hill, 1977); and David Birmingham, Kwame Nkrumah: Father of African Nationalism (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998).

  46 NYT, November 15, 16 (q), 1970; Riessen int.

  47 NYT, November 17, 21–22, 24–27, 29–30, 1970; Stan Smith int.

  48 NYT, December 2, 6, 1970; BCHT, 157.

  49 NYT, November 6 (first q), 8 (second q), 1970.

  50 Ibid., November 13, December 6, 9 (q), 1970; BCHT, 157.

  51 NYT, December 8–11, 16, 1970; BCHT, 153 (qs), 157; Danzig and Schwed, eds., Fireside Book of Tennis, 899–909; Stan Smith and Richey ints. Jan Kodes replaced Richey to complete the six-man field. Stan Smith won the first-place prize money of $15,000. After four days of play, the tournament took a three-day break before resuming on Monday, December 14.

  CHAPTER 13: DOUBLING DOWN

  1 NYT, January 2, 1971.

  2 Ibid., January 17–19 (qs), 1971.

  3 Ibid., January 21, 22(q), 24, 29–30, February 6–7, 14, 18, 20, 22–23, 1971. When Laver defeated Ashe on January 28, it was his seventh straight victory in the series and his sixth consecutive victory over Ashe. Two weeks later, Ashe lost to Laver again in the semifinals of the Philadelphia International indoor tournament. In the Champion Classic series, Ashe made it to the quarterfinals, where he lost to Ralston (whom he had defeated the previous week in Philadelphia) on February 22.

  4 Ibid., January 25, 1971.

  5 OTC, 146; IRAA, 25 (first q), 33, 104 (second q); Angela Y. Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography (New York: International Publishers, 2013). Created by Don Cornelius, Soul Train first aired on WCIU-TV in Chicago in August 1970. On October 2, 1971, it went into national syndication and soon became “the black American Bandstand.” The popular show ran continuously until March 25, 2008. See the 2010 documentary Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America (VH-1 Productions); and Nelson George, The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style (New York: William Morrow, 2014).

  6 DG, 126–67, 157 (q); OTC, 215–16.

  7 DG, 115 (qs); Young and Dell ints; Dell int, SSAA. Hall, Arthur Ashe, 83, incorrectly places the Atlanta episode in 1968 at Young’s home. Donald Dell also remembered the date as 1968, but Ashe did not meet Young until 1970; Hazzard moved to Atlanta in 1969. See IRAA, 66.

  8 NYT, January 12–14, 16, February 11, 25 (qs), 1971; OTC, 146. South Africa’s Population Registration Act of 1950 established four official racial groups: white, black, coloured, and Indian. Individuals were placed into one of these groups based on appearance, known ancestry, cultural lifestyle, and socioeconomic status. Deborah Posel, “Race as Common Sense: Racial Classification in Twentieth-Century South Africa,” African Studies Review 44 (September 2001): 87–113.

  9 BCHT, 158, 160–61, 582–83; NYT, February 25, 1971 (qs). See also Harry Gordon, “How the Daughter of an Ancient Race Made It Out of the Australian Outback,” NYT Magazine (August 29, 1971): 10–11 and ff; and Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 104–17.

  10 BCHT, 158–61, 362, 369; NYT, March 8, 10–15, 1971.

  11 BCHT, 161–62, 396, 432, 562 (q); OTC, 221.

  12 BCHT, 152, 157, 400, 436, 702, 776; OTC, 220–24; IRAA, 64; Riessen int.

  13 BCHT, 159, 162; NYT, March 15, May 29, 30 (q), June 4–5, 1971; Riessen int.

  14 Riessen and Stan Smith ints; NYT, June 4, 5 (qs), 1971; BCHT, 162.

  15 NYT, February 14, April 15, June 16, 27 (qs), August 31, 1970; BCHT, 158–59, 162, 648; Stan Smith int.

  16 BCHT, 159, 421, 436, NYT, June 30, July 1–4, 1971; Stan Smith, Newcombe, and Ralston ints. At the age of seventeen, Ralston, with Rafael Osuna as his partner, won the Wimbledon doubles title in 1960.

  17 NYT, July 1, 1971; PIM, 3; W, 64–69, 74, 98, 106–7, 119, 125, 149–57, 166–67, 175–76, 152 (q); DG, 116; CTN, 112–13; IRAA, 4; Willis Thomas and Bobby Davis ints.

  18 DG, 109–10; OTC, 147; NYT, June 18, 24 (q), 25, 1971. During the first round of the 1971 U.S. Open, played on June 17 at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, two members of the crowd heckled Gary Player with the chant “Arthur Ashe, Sharpeville,” linking Ashe’s visa denial to the infamous March 1960 massacre of black South Africans by white policemen. The actual site of the massacre, which left 69 dead and 180 wounded, was the African township of Vereeniging, in the Transvaal town of Sharpeville. See Jim Hoagland, South Africa: Civilizations in Conflict (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), 132–33.

  19 BCHT, 159; NYT, January 10, February 3, 14, April 7, May 25, June 1, 16, 1971; OTC, 138; Dell int.

  20 NYT, July 11, 14 (q), 1971; BCHT, 160, 568; Dell and Collins ints. On television’s impact on tennis, see Mariah Gillespie, “Tennis and Television: The Impact of the Media on a Traditional Sport,” October 8, 2011, available online at mariahgillespie1.blogspot.com. The first televised tennis match took place in Rye, New York, in 1937. The experimental coverage by NBC was seen on primitive four-by-three-inch screens, and those watching could barely make out the flight of the ball. See BCHT, 65.

  21 NYT, April 11, 1971 (q).

  22 OTC, 144–49; DG, 101–4, 107, 109, 112–13; Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 833; Hoagland, South Africa, 340–59.

  23 DG, 102–12; Ronald V. Dellums and H. Lee Hatterman, Lying Down with the Lions (Bo
ston: Beacon, 2000); Raymond W. Copson, The Congressional Black Caucus and Foreign Policy (1971–2002) (Boston: Nova Science, 2003); Robert Singh, The Congressional Black Caucus: Racial Politics in the US Congress (New York: Sage, 1997). On the American anti-apartheid movement, see David Hostetter, Movement Matters: American Antiapartheid Activism and the Rise of Multicultural Politics (New York: Routledge, 2009); Donald Culverson, Contesting Apartheid: U.S. Activism, 1960–1987 (Boulder: Westview, 1999); and Francis N. Nesbitt, Race for Sanctions: African Americans and Apartheid, 1946–1994 (Bloomngton: Indiana University Press, 2004). On the movement to boycott and isolate South African sports, see Peter Hain, Don’t Play with Apartheid: The Background to the Stop the Seventy Tour (London: Allen & Unwin, 1971); and Robert Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond (New York: Routledge, 1994), 131–54. See also Hoagland, South Africa, 340–83.

  24 Nesbitt, Race for Sanctions; DG, 107; OTC, 147–48; Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 818–19, 824–27.

  25 Gordon, “How the Daughter of an Ancient Race Made It Out of the Australian Outback,” 11, 45, 47.

  26 NYT, October 2, 7, 12, 15, 19, November 1, 3, 5–8, 13–15, 19, December 5, 1971; OTC, 132.

  27 Keesing’s Research Report, Africa Independent: A Study of Political Developments (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972), 209–12, 222–24, 233–36. See also Tambi Eyongetah and Robert Brain, A History of the Cameroon (London: Longman, 1974); Meredith Terreta, Nation of Outlaws, State of Violence: Nationalism, Grassfields Tradition, and State Building in Cameroon (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2013); and William Mark Habeeb, Ivory Coast (Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2013). On Senegal and Senghor, see Janet Vaillard, Black, French, and African: A Life of Léopold Segar Senghor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990).

  28 Ray Kennedy, “There’s Bitter with the Sweet,” SI (August 15, 1983): 54–60 (first q), 62–66; Barry Lorge, “The Sudden Rise of Noah’s Arc,” Sport (September 1983): 54–57 (second q), 58–61; OTC, 132 (third and fourth qs); BCHT, 619–20; Noah int, SSAA; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 124, 132–33. On Noah, see Yannick Noah, T’as Pas Deux Balles? (Paris: Stock, 1984); and Yannick Noah, Noah par Noah (Paris: Cherche Midi, 2006).

  29 OTC, 132 (qs), 133; IRAA, 44.

  30 Ibid., 133 (q); CTN, 101, 114, 129–30, 164, 166, 206–10; BATN, 70–83, 142–61; W, 118, 165–66; Reid, Carrington, Desdunes, and Wilkerson ints.

  31 Desdunes, Wilkerson, Allen, Reid, Carrington, McNeil, Sands, Harmon, and Nelson ints.

  32 AA, 70–77; CTN, 72, 101 (second q), 113–14 (first and third qs), 115 (second and fourth qs), 136, 228; W, 108–9, 118, 135, 160, 164–65 (sixth q), 166 (fifth q), 167–68; Carrington, Wilkerson, Reid, and Desdunes ints.

  33 W, 137–43, 148–49, 151, 164–65 (third q), 180; CTN, 101, 112, 115, 205 (first q), 206 (second q), 207–8, 226; BATN, 70–84; Harmon, Sands, Reid, Allen, Hooper, Shelton, Carrington, and Wilkerson ints.

  34 Reid int (qs); CTN, 101, 245; W, 117–18, 164–65; BATN, 71–72.

  35 IRAA, 108 (first q); Reid and Hooper ints (second q); W, 166–68; BATN, 81–84.

  36 Hooper int; CTN, 115, 136, 167, 245; W, 141, 164, 180; BATN, 81–83.

  37 Harmon, Thomas, and Wilkerson ints; IRAA, 4, 12–13, 14 (first q), 15, 17–19, 54–57, 80–81, 107–8, 117–18, 132–33, 158, 166–67; CTN, 41, 102, 115, 120, 155–56, 158–59, 161, 166 (second q)–168, 207, 214, 226, 230; W, 160, 162–63, 180; BATN, 83–84.

  38 IRAA, 17 (fifth q), 80 (first q), 108 (fourth q), 118 (second q); CTN, 102 (third q); Harmon and Dell ints.

  39 NYT, February 4, 6, 1972; Harmon and JMA ints; IRAA, 48, 60, 65, 72–73, 101–18.

  CHAPTER 14: RISKY BUSINESS

  1 PIM, 2–3 (q); Loretta Ashe Harris int.

  2 George Herring, The Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979), 242–83; John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), 374–430; Andrew Young, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 504–20; Young, Johnnie Ashe, and Dell ints; George McGovern to Arthur Ashe, February 15, 1972, in folder 2, box 2, AAP.

  3 BCHT, 160, 163–64; NYT, February 13 (q), March 15–16, 19, 1972; Dell int.

  4 Dell int; NYT, April 12, 21, 27 (q), July 12–13, 18, 1972; BCHT, 160–61, 163; Connors, The Outsider, 79–81. On King and the women’s tour in the 1970s, see Ware, Game, Set, Match, 1–178; Billie Jean King, with Kim Chapin, Billie Jean: An Autobiography (New York: Harper & Row, 1974); King, with Frank Deford, Billie Jean; Selena Roberts, A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game (New York: Crown, 2005); and Grace Lichtenstein, A Long Way Baby: The Inside Story of the Women in Pro Tennis (New York: William Morrow, 1974).

  5 BCHT, 161, 165, 169; NYT, April 12, 1972; Connors, The Outsider, 85–86; Evans, The Davis Cup, 173–200; Murray Janoff, Game! Set! Match! (New York: Stadia Sports, 1973), 111–22.

  6 NYT, April 2 (q), July 13, 1972; BCHT, 174–75; Morgan, “Black and White at Center Court,” 824, 833; PIM, 106; DG, 107.

  7 NYT, June 10, 12, 18, July 1, 7–10, 19, 21, 27–31, August 1, 3–7, 9, 12–13, 17, 1972.

  8 Ibid., May 28, June 10, 12, July 28 (q), August 1, 3–7, 9, 12–13, 17, 1972.

  9 Ibid., June 27, August 6, 20, 1972.

  10 Ibid., August 23, 27 (first q), August 30–September 2, 5–6, 8 (second q); BCHT, 164; Connors, The Outsider, 96.

  11 BCHT, 165; OTC, 138–39; DG, 66, 267; Dell and Drysdale ints; NYT, September 8 (q), 10, 1972.

  12 NYT, September 10 (first q), 11–12 (second q), 22, 1972; Wells Twombly, “Here Comes Nasty: In the Style of Bo Belinsky, Joe Namath, Lee Trevino, and Muhammad Ali,” NYT Magazine (October 22, 1972): 42–43, 84–85 (third q), 86–88; Evans, Nasty, 74–82; DG, 72, 91; Collins int.

  13 NYT, September 11, 14, 17–18, 1972.

  14 Ibid., September 22, October 1–2, 26–27, 30, November 14, 16, 18, 23–24, 26–27 (first q), 28 (second q), 1972; Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 444–61. On the presidential election of 1972, see Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1972 (New York: Atheneum, 1973).

  15 NYT, January 7, 1973 (first q); BCHT, 167 (second q), 168–71.

  16 BCHT, 167–68; NYT, December 12, 1972, January 7, 1973.

  17 NYT, January 24, 26–27, 30, February 11, 23, March 1, 5, 10, 20, 24–26, April 3, 5–6, 9, 11, 13–14, 18–23, 25, 29–30, 1973.

  18 BCHT, 167–68; NYT, May 9–10, 12–14, 1973; AA, 87, 129, 171–74.

  19 NYT, January 12, 1973 (qs).

  20 Ibid., May 15, 18–20 (q), 1973; Richey and Gottfried ints.

  21 PIM, passim; Patricia Battles Davis/Billy Davis and Dell ints; AA, 95, 105–6 (first q), 120 (second q); OTC, 81–84. On the Loving decision, see Peter Wallenstein, Race, Sex, and the Freedom to Marry: Loving v. Virginia (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014); the documentary film The Loving Story (HBO Documentary Films, directed by Nancy Buirski. 2011); and the acclaimed feature film Loving (Universal Studios, directed by Jeff Nichols, 2016).

  22 AA, 95 (first and third qs), 106 (second and fourth qs).

  23 See Wil Haygood, In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003); Sammy Davis Jr., and Jane and Burt Boyar, Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis Jr. (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990); Pearl Bailey, The Raw Pearl (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968); Pearl Bailey, Talking to Myself (New York: Harcourt, 1971); Roberts, Papa Jack; Ward, Unforgivable Blackness; William S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991); Maria Diedrich, Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass (New York: Hill & Wang, 1999); and Jewel Parker Rhodes, Douglass’ Women: A Novel (New York: Pocket Books, 2002).

  24 OTC, 187–88; PIM, 3 (q), passim; Joseph Carroll, “Most Americans Approve of Interracial Marriages,” Gallup News Service, August 16, 2007, available online.
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  25 IRAA, 93 (first q); PIM, vii (qs).

  26 PIM, 1–2; BCHT, 389, 400; NYT, May 23–June 1, 1973.

  27 BCHT, 168 (q), 169; PIM, 1–9; NYT, May 23, June 7, 1973; Dell int.

  28 NYT, June 7, 1973; PIM, 1, 2 (first q), 3–4 (second q); OTC, 137 (third q); IRAA, 109.

  29 NYT, June 20, 1973 (first q); London Times, June 20–23, 1973; PIM, 1(fifth q), 10–11 (second and third qs), 12 (fourth q); OTC, 139–40; BCHT, 168.

  30 NYT, June 21, 1973 (q).

  31 BCHT, 168–69; PIM, 5, 7–8, 14 (q), 15; London Times, June 17–30, 1973; NYT, June 21–July 3, 1973. See also the 1973 Wimbledon Scrapbook, KRWL.

  32 DG, 66 (q); PIM, 48–52.

  33 Ware, Game, Set, Match, 99–103; BCHT, 168, 170, 595, 744; NYT, May 31, June 23, July 3 (qs), 4, August 4, 5, 9, 28, September 10, 18, November 4, 11, 19, December 12, 14, 27, 1973.

  34 PIM, 53 (first q); DG, 233–34, 235 (second q), 236; OTC, 191, 194–97; Ware, Game, Set, Match, 102, 202, 266; JMA and Dell ints.

  35 NYT, July 3, 4 (first q), August 4 (second q), 5 (third q), 9, 28 1973; BCHT, 170. On Murphy, see Dennis Murphy and Richard Neil Graham, Murph: The Sports Entrepreneur Man and His Leagues (Los Angeles: Inline Hockey Central, 2013).

  36 NYT, May 3, August 28 (first and second qs), 29–31, September 1–3, 1973; Carrington, Willis Thomas, and Wilkerson ints; CTN, 113–15; W, 92, 136–37; BCHT, 93–94, 579; PIM, 70–72, 73–74 (third q), 75 (fourth q).

  37 Ware, Game, Set, and Match, 1–8, 14, 38–39, 43, 75, 118, 178, 207, 213; PIM, 72–73, 90; BCHT, 566–67, 595–96, 632; NYT, May 13 (first and second qs), 14 (third q), August 4, September 20, 1973.

  38 NYT, September 21, 1973.

  39 Ibid., September 22, 1973; PIM, 72 (first q), 86 (qs); Hall, Arthur Ashe, 188–92.

  40 PIM, 90.

  41 Ibid., 95, 102–4, 110 (q); IRAA, 41. On the rush of events during the fall of 1973, see the numerous current events articles in Time, September–December 1973. For an overview of the major events and trends of 1973, see Blum, Years of Discord, 431–60; and Peter N. Carroll, It Seemed Like Nothing Happened: America in the 1970s (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 91–153.