Arthur Ashe

by Raymond Arsenault

  9 JMA and Pace ints; “Ashe Buys House,” Mount Kisco Patent Trader (c. April 1985) (first q), in folder1, box 1, AAP; Donald Dell and Raymond S. Benton to Arthur Ashe, February 13, 1986, in folder 15, box 1, AAP; Barry Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” Tennis (September 1988): 46 (second q), 48, 51, 53–55, copy in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF.

  10 Thomas Boswell, unidentified clipping, January 1985 (q), in folder 4, box 35, AAP. Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 262, noted that Ashe “worked tirelessly for the cause of his people, but he did so mostly in boardrooms, Beltway offices, and other establishment venues.”

  11 DG, 101 (q).

  12 DG, 111 (first q), 112 (second through fourth qs), 113 (fifth q), 117; NYT, November 8, 30, 1984, January 12, 1985; Karlyn Barker, “Arthur Ashe Jailed in Apartheid Protest,” WP, January 12, 1985; Karlyn Barker, “Apartheid Protestors’ ‘Show Trial’ Canceled,” WP, February 26, 1985; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 255; “Marching Against Apartheid,” Time (December 10, 1984): 40; Robinson int.

  13 Hartman, Desdunes, Pasarell, Dowdell, and Wilkerson ints; NYT, July 24 (first q), August 26 (qs), 1985; W, 163–64.

  14 NYT, March 22, 1985; Anderson, “Arthur Ashe’s New Match” (q).

  15 Hooper, Harmon, and Blount ints; W, 160, 162–64, 180, 182; CTN, 115, 125–38, 155–56, 166–67, 191–92, 207, 214, 226, 230; BATN, 70–71, 75, 77, 81–84, 137–40, 142–45, 149–50, 159, 168–70, 177–78, 197, 201, 205–9, 211, 215, 217; BCHT, 318, 463–65, 685–86. Blake lost a tough five-set match to Agassi 3–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–3, 7–6. He also reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2006, losing to the eventual champion Roger Federer 7–6, 6–0, 6–7, 6–4.

  16 Allen and Adams ints; W, 62, 113, 160–61, 164, 182; CTN, 15, 73, 75, 113, 116, 144, 183–88, 224, 238; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 249.

  17 Wilkerson, Garrison, McNeil, and Washington ints; Garrison, with Doug Smith, Zina; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 252–57; BCHT, 216, 227, 231, 235–36, 238, 241, 243, 251–52, 260, 263, 269–71, 327, 689–90; W, 45, 62, 160–64, 182; BATN, 21, 30–31, 39, 41, 73, 75, 78–79, 88–106, 108, 111, 118, 121, 144, 150, 170, 176–77, 180, 188, 194, 197, 205–7; CTN, viii, 4, 15, 17, 22, 72–73, 77, 103, 106, 115–16, 119–21, 140–54, 161–62, 183, 190, 197, 214, 223, 227–28, 232.

  18 Sands, Washington, and Desdunes ints; CTN, 189 (q)–90; BATN, 72, 75, 77. Sands’s highest world ranking in singles was #44 in 1984. See wwww.stevegtennis.com/draw-results/wta/French-Open for the women’s draw at the 1985 French Open. McNeil was also in the singles draw but was unseeded.

  19 BCHT, 224, 228, 390, 400; NYT, June 5–9, November 26, 1985; Christian Endemann, “Arthur Ashe: A Gentleman Graces the Tennis Scene with Candour and Courage,” Canadian Rackets (July 1985): 32–33, copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP.

  20 NYT, June 23, 1985; “Ashe in the United Nations,” Secretariat News (June 14, 1985), copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP; JMA int.

  21 DG, 235 (qs)–36; JMA and Dell ints; Donald Dell to Arthur Ashe, July 5, 1985, in folder 15, box 1, AAP.

  22 BCHT, 192, 201, 206, 208, 211, 217, 220, 222, 224–26, 240, 422, 546, 696–97; www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/draws/archives/1985; 1985 Wimbledon scrapbook, KRWL; DG, 109–10; Simon Cambers, “Kevin Curren: 1985 Wimbledon Defeat by Boris Becker a Special Not Bitter Memory,” The Guardian (June 25, 2015); Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 267, 333–51, 355; Arthur Ashe, “Kevin Curren,” WP, July 7, 1985; Bud Collins, “Class Act Makes It to Hall,” Boston Globe, July 12, 1985. On the Kriek incident in Richmond, see OTC, 207. See also Johann Kriek, “Johan Kriek Remembers His Early Struggles in Tennis,” Tennis.Prose.com, posted July 20, 2011.

  23 For information on the history and evolution of PEI, see folders 3–14, box 31, and folders 1 and 2, box 32, AAP. On the dissolution, see especially Frank Craighill to Arthur Ashe, May 15, 1985, in folder 5, box 31, AAP; Minutes, PEI board meeting, July 11, 1985, and Draft of “Notice of Termination Plan,” both in folder 1, box 32, AAP. Barbara Lloyd, “Ashe Enters the Hall of Fame,” NYT, July 14, 1985; “Ashe Proud to Be First Black Male in Tennis Hall,” Jet (August 12, 1985), copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP.

  24 DG, 98–99; “Class Act Makes It to Hall,” (first five qs); “Arthur Ashe, Class of 1985,” ITHF Fact Sheet, April 10, 2001, Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF; Bill Parrillo, “Arthur Ashe Earned His Place in History,” Providence Journal, July 14, 1985 (sixth q), copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP; Frederick Waterman, “Arthur Ashe Entering Hall of Fame,” Taunton Gazette, July 13, 1985 (last q), copy in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF.

  25 Covering the induction ceremony for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, John Packett wrote: “Ashe was one of the best sportsmen to ever play the game and was thoroughly deserving of his moment in the sun yesterday.” RTD, July 14, 1985; “Arthur Ashe Entering Hall of Fame” (first q); “Ashe Enters the Hall of Fame” (second q); Frederick Waterman, “For Ashe, Bottom Line Was Fun,” Newport News, July 15, 1985 (third q); Sam Lacy, “Ashe’s Aces,” BAA, July 27, 1985; Marion Collins, “Arthur Ashe Quietly Ascends to Hall of Fame,” New York Daily News, July 28, 1985 (qs); ITHF fact sheet; copies of each in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF.

  26 NYT, July 18, August 2–5, 1985; BCHT, 224–26; DG, 97–98 (qs). On the Hamburg tie, see the clippings in folder 12, box 30, AAP. See especially Curry Kirkpatrick, “A Smash Hit on His Home Court,” SI (August 12, 1985): 28–33.

  27 On Ashe’s resignation as Davis Cup captain, see the clippings in folder 17, box 30, AAP. DG, 98 (first q), 99 (second through fifth qs), 100 (last q); NYT, October 22–23, December 14, 17, 1985; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 267.

  28 DG, 100 (qs).

  29 Ibid., 102 (first and second qs), 103 (third q).

  30 Ibid., 103 (qs), 158–59; JMA and Young ints; Douglas Wilder to Arthur Ashe, November 4, 1985, in folder 6, box 2, AAP. On Jesse Jackson and the 1984 presidential campaign, see Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover, Wake Us When It’s Over: Presidential Politics of 1984 (New York: Macmillan, 1984); and Lucius J. Barber and Ronald W. Walters, eds., Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential Campaign: Challenge and Change in American Politics (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989). On the 1988 campaign, see Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover, What Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency, 1988 (New York: Warner, 1989).

  31 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 387–88; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 257; DG, 174 (q), 175; NYT, March 8, November 8, 1986; Dell int. For a detailed survey of A Hard Road to Glory’s road to publication, see the miscellaneous documents in box 9, AAP. See especially Amistad Press, Inc., “President’s Annual report—1988”; Amistad Press fact sheet; Charles Harris CV; and David O. Bernline to David B. Falk, August 11, 1988. On the Amistad mutiny and its aftermath, see Marcus Rediker, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom (New York: Viking, 2012). On the origins of the Craighill-Dell feud, see folders 4 and 5, box 31, and folders 1 and 2, box 32, AAP. See especially the correspondence between Craighill and Dell, February 27, March 3, 1986, in folder 2, box 32, AAP. On the television documentary A Hard Road to Glory (directed by Stephen E. Goodrick), see www.imdb.com/title/tt3004992.

  32 NYT, June 22 (first q), August 22, August 30–September 11, October 3–6, 1986; BCHT, 370, 433, 483, 474, 690; Bodo, Courts of Babylon, 248–51; Ira Berkow, “Hard Times for Garrison,” NYT, April 12, 1986; Michael Lewellen, “Arthur Ashe,” Kappa Alpha Psi Journal (February 1986): 9–10, copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP; Walt Hazzard to Arthur Ashe, July 25, 1986, in folder 7, box 2, AAP; Phil Patton, “The Selling of Michael Jordan,” NYT, November 9, 1986 (second and third qs).

  33 JMA, Pace, Loretta Ashe Harris, and Schragis ints; DG, 56 (first q), 57 (second and third qs), 58.

  34 JMA int; DG, 57 (fourth q), 58 (first, third, and fifth qs); Hall, Arthur Ashe, 260 (second q); Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World (King qs); Martin, Arthur Ashe, 144–45; Marian Christy, “They Are Living a Loving Match,” Newport News Daily Press, October 10, 1980, copy in scrapbook, box 40, AAP.

  35 List of Committee Me
mbers, National Organization on the Status of Minorities in Sport, typescript; Dr. Harry Edwards to Peter Roselle, April 22, 1987; Harry Edwards, “The Exploitation of Black Athletes,” Journal of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges 25 (November–December 1983): 37–46, all in folder 9, box 27, AAP; NYT, May 21, June 13 (q), 30, 1987; Edwards int; DG, 147–48, 165; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 228.

  36 “Arthur Ashe Int: On Blacks and Tennis,” Tennis Industry (April 1988): 88–91; “Words: Arthur Ashe Remembers the Forgotten Men of Sport—America’s Early Black Athletes,” unidentified 1988 article; “Around the World with Kim Cunningham,” WT (September 1988): 6, copies in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF; Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 46 (q), 48, 51, 53–55; NYT, September 6, November 21, 1987.

  37 DG, 195–96; JMA and Dell ints.

  CHAPTER 25: DAYS OF GRACE

  1 DG, 195 (first q), 196 (second q); JMA int.

  2 DG, 196 (first q), 197 (second and third qs), 198 (fourth q).

  3 Ibid., 199 (qs).

  4 Ibid., 200 (first, second, and third qs), 201 (fourth and fifth qs).

  5 Mandeville and JMA ints; DG, 204 (first q), 201 (second and third qs). Shilts, And the Band Played On, is the best source on the early years of the AIDS pandemic.

  6 DG, 202 (first and second qs), 203 (third q); Murray int.

  7 DG, 203 (q); JMA, Pasarell, Stan Smith, and Dell ints.

  8 Murray int (q); DG, 203–5.

  9 Murray int; DG, 205, 206 (qs), 207.

  10 DG, 207, 208 (first and second qs), 209 (third through sixth qs).

  11 Ibid., 210 (qs), 211; Murray int (second and fifth qs).

  12 Murray int; DG, 210, 211 (first and second qs), 212 (third q).

  13 DG, 212 (first q), 213 (second and third qs), 214–15; Murray int. On the emergence of AZT as a primary medicine in the treatment of AIDS, see John Manuel Andriote, Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 176–77, 183–97, 203–4; Engel, The Epidemic, 48, 92, 106, 124, 129–31, 134, 140–41, 206, 231, 235, 238–46; and Elizabeth Fee and Daniel M. Fox, eds., AIDS: The Burdens of History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 327, 334–35.

  14 Murray int (q).

  15 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 388–89; copy of NYT Book Review advertisement, and “Amistad Press Fact Sheet,” both in folder 1, box 9, AAP; Arthur Ashe, “Taking the Hard Road with Black Athletes: Success in Sports Became a Matter of Cultural Pride,” NYT, November 13, 1988 (qs).

  16 Barry Lorge, “Ashe Book Literary Labor of Love,” San Diego Union, November 2, 1988 (qs), copy in folder 1, box 9, AAP; Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 389. See also Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 46ff.

  17 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 389–92 (second q); Skp Myslenski, “A Race to Succeed: Trials and Dreams of America’s Black Athletes,” Chicago Tribune, November 27, 1988; Dave Anderson, “Thanksgiving Thank-Yous: Remembering Those Who Make the World a Better Place to Be,” NYT, November 24, 1988 (first q). The book also received a favorable review in the February 1, 1989, issue of Ebony.

  18 David Halberstam, “Champions We Never Knew,” NYT Book Review, December 8, 1988 (qs), copy in folder 1, box 9, AAP.

  19 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 390, 391, 392 (qs); Dave Nicholson, “Those Championship Seasons,” WP, January 29, 1989; Nicolaus Mills, “On and Off the Playing Field,” Nation, May 8, 1989; J. Milton Yinger, review in Contemporary Sociology 19 (March 1990): 286; Gary A. Sailes, review in Sociology of Sport Journal 6 (1989): 394.

  20 Wiggins, “Symbols of Possibility,” 389; “Amistad Press, Inc., Gross Profit, Title-to-Date, 1990,” typescript; and “A Book Party, Hard Road to Glory,” flier, both in folder 1, box 9, AAP; Mandeville and Don Harris ints.

  21 Obituary, printed sheet in folder 1, box 1, AAP; DG, 54 (first q); Martin, Arthur Ashe, 148; Loretta Ashe Harris, Pace, and JMA ints; Bob Lipper, “The Grace and Grit of Arthur Ashe,” RTD, May 21, 1989 (second q), copy in folder 4, box 35, AAP.

  22 Lipper, “The Grace and Grit of Arthur Ashe,” (first q); Bollettieri, Bobby Davis, and Dowdell ints; DG, 191 (second q); IRAA, 157–58; Hall, Arthur Ashe, 259; IRAA, 157, 162 (third q). On the ABC program, see the letters and documents, especially the brochure, “The Ashe-Bollettieri Cities Tennis Program,” in folder 4, box 27, AAP; and Nick Bollettieri and Dick Schaap, My Aces, My Faults (New York: Avon, 1996); and Nick Bollettieri, Bollettieri: Changing the Game (Sarasota: New Chapter Press, 2014), Chapters 12 and 13. On IMG, see Bodo, The Courts of Babylon, 23, 88, 91–95, 140–43, 147–48, 164, 193, 213, 220, 258, 261, 287–88, 297, 308, 427.

  23 Dowdell and JMA ints; DG, 192 (qs), 193 (fourth q).

  24 NYT, January 19, 1989 (qs); DG, 147–51.

  25 Arthur Ashe, “Coddling Black Athletes,” NYT, February 10, 1989; “Is Prop 42 Racist?,” Ebony (June 1989): 139–40, presents a point-counterpoint between Ashe and Dr. Joseph Johnston, president of Grambling State University (a historically black school in Louisiana) and chairman of the national Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

  26 DG, 151 (first q), 152 (second q).

  27 William C. Rhoden, “Golf Strikes Sensitive Nerve,” NYT, August 5, 1990; Jaime Diaz, “Applying Lessons of the Civil Rights Movement,” NYT, August 9, 1990 (q).

  28 Jaime Diaz, “TV Executive Is First Black at Augusta,” NYT, September 12, 1990 (first q); Paul S. Fein, “We’ve Come a Long Way, Racially—or Have We? Ashe on Tennis’ Shoal Creeks,” Tennis Week (October 18, 1990): 8–9 (qs), copy in Arthur Ashe Vertical File, ITHF.

  29 “Agenda for BE-Arthur Ashe Meeting, Halloween 1990”; Memorandum, Arthur Ashe to Luther Fagin, November 26, 1990; Memorandum on “BE, BET, Black Tennis and Sports Foundation Collaboration,” Arthur Ashe to Earl Graves, c. November 1990, all in folder 4, box 29, AAP.

  30 Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 53; DG, 153–57 (q), 158–64; Dinkins and Young ints. On Lewis and the “beloved community,” see John Lewis, with Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998). See also Charles Marsh, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from Civil Rights to Today (New York: Basic Books, 2004).

  31 DG, 166 (fourth q), 282 (second and third qs), 283 (first q); IRAA, 109.

  32 Ibid., 285–88 (first and second qs), 289 (third and fourth qs), 290 (fifth through seventh qs)–92; Rogers, Paul Smith, and Young ints; Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon, 1996); Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart (Boston: Beacon, 1999).

  33 DG, 132–36, 215; Murray int.

  34 Dennis H. Osmond, “Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the United States” (compiled March 2003), available online at hivinsite.ucsf.edu; Andrew Sullivan, “A Right to Live,” NYT Book Review (November 27, 2016): 1 (q), 22; Murray int. For a comprehensive and thoughtful survey of the war against AIDS, see David France, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016).

  35 Lipper, “The Grace and Grit of Arthur Ashe” (first q); Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 51–52 (second q), 53, 56; “The Price of Greatness,” National Sports Journal (November 2–3, 1990): 12, copy in folder 5, box 35, AAP; Murray, JMA, Schragis, and Butch Buchholz ints.

  36 Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 52–53. On the African American Athletic Association, Inc., see the extensive documentation in folder 2, box 27, AAP. See especially the printed program for the First Annual Student-Athlete Conference sponsored by the AAAA’s Athletic Role Model Educational Institute, held at Madison Square Garden in November 1992. On the African American Sports Hall of Fame, see DG, 267; and folders 1–10, box 28, and folders 1–2, box 29, AAP.

  37 Lorge, “Inside the Heart and Mind of Arthur Ashe,” 53; DG, 182–83 (q), 184; Martin, Arthur Ashe, 148.

  38 Martin, Arthur Ashe, 148 (q); JMA, Murra
y, and Dell ints.

  39 DG, 120–22 (q); NYT, February 11–12, 1990; Donald Dell int, SSAA; Pauline H. Baker, The United States and South Africa: The Reagan Years (New York: Ford Foundation Press, 1989); Piero Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976–1991 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016). On Mandela, see Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Boston: Back Bay Books, 1995); and Martin Meredith, Mandela: A Biography (New York: PublicAffairs, 2011). On de Klerk, see F. W. de Klerk, The Last Trek—A New Beginning: The Autobiography (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999).

  40 DG, 117 (qs); Robinson int; NYT, February 12, 1986; Dartmouth Review, November 13, 15, 18–19, 22, 1985, January 7, 14, 25, 1986; Dartmouth Review, December 11, 1985, January 29, 1986; Eloise Salholz, “Shanties on the Green,” Newsweek (February 3, 1986): 63; Jon Weiner, “Students, Stocks, and Shanties,” Nation (October 11, 1986): 337–40; Horace A. Porter, The Making of a Black Scholar: From Georgia to the Ivy League (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2003), 129–34; Bradford Martin, The Other Eighties: A Secret History of America in the Age of Reagan (New York: Hill & Wang, 2011), 45–66.

  41 DG, 119–20.

  42 DG, 120 (first q), 121 (qs); NYT, June 20, 1990; Dinkins interview.

  43 DG, 122 (first q), 123 (second and third qs); NYT, April 27–29, 1994; Anthony Sampson, Mandela: The Authorized Biography (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), 401–86; Robinson int. On TransAfrica’s “Democracy Now” tour, see folder 9, box 27, AAP.

  44 DG, 124 (q).

  45 DG, 7–10 (qs); W, 174–76: Policinski int.

  46 DG, 10–12; JMA int.

  47 DG, 12, 13 (q), 14–15; JMA, Dell, Pasarell, and Abraham ints.

  48 DG, 14 (q); JMA, Young and Dinkins ints.

  49 DG, 6–8 (qs), 13.

  50 DG, 15 (q); Smith, W, 175–76; JMA int.