Skip to content

featuring historical research, writing, and media at st. mary's university

  • World History

    World History

    Menu
    • World History
    • Pre-Classical History (to 600 BCE)
    • Classical History (600 BCE-600 CE)
    • Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE)
    • Early Modern History (1492-1789)
    • Modern History (1789-1914)
    • Global History (1900-present)

    From the Ancient World

    The Battle of Zama: Rome's Vengeance

    Posted by Davis Nickle12/01/2020

    From the Modern World

    The Holy See Takes On The Fight Against Climate Change

    Posted by Victor Rodriguez11/30/2020

    Regional Histories

    Menu
    • African and African American Studies
    • Latin American Studies
  • US History

    Early America

    Menu
    • US-Three Worlds Meet (to 1620)
    • US-Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
    • US-Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
    • US-Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
    • US-Civil War & Reconstruction (1850-1877)

    Clarence Norris: The Last Voice of the Scottsboro Boys

    Posted by Kathryn Martinez11/01/2019

    Elizabeth Taylor the Vixen Savior

    Posted by Micheala Whitfield05/04/2020

    Walt Disney and the building of his Magic Kingdom

    Posted by Malik Heard12/06/2019

    Tyson McGuffin: US Open Pickleball Champion

    Posted by Jake Faryniarz11/13/2020

    Outlaw Road Racing: Taking the Legendary Cannonball Run at Breakneck Speed

    Posted by Stephen Talik05/01/2020

    William Weber: Attorney In it for Profit

    Posted by Makenzie Santana04/17/2019

    Like a Virgin: Madonna's Road to Success

    Posted by Andrea Degollado11/14/2019

    E-Cigarettes: An Incredible Invention or Complete Catastrophy? Adam Hergenreder Shares His Catastrophic Experience

    Posted by Elizabeth Guardiola11/13/2019

    The First Girl Scout, Juliette Gordon Low

    Posted by Margaret Maguire12/06/2019

    World's Best Boss: Steve Carell and His Journey to Becoming Michael Scott

    Posted by Cristianna Tovar12/10/2019

    "An Absurd Delusion": Pride, Ignorance, and America's Deadliest Natural Disaster

    Posted by Kenneth Gilley10/06/2019

    On the Road Again: Charlotte Kahl's Journey Along the Old Spanish Trail

    Posted by Gabriel Cohen05/10/2019

    Brian Kemp, The Puppeteer of His Own Election

    Posted by Alexa Montelongo12/01/2020

    Why We Should Defend Human Gene Editing

    Posted by Emily Velazquez04/07/2019

    Stitches of Healing: The AIDS Memorial Quilt

    Posted by Michaela Jeanis11/05/2020

    To Love A Serial Killer

    Posted by Krystal Rodriguez04/17/2019

    Dorothy Kamenshek: Playing ball during WW2

    Posted by Reba Reyes11/18/2020

    Behind The Tapes: The Actions Taken Towards Impeaching Nixon

    Posted by Thalia Romo11/15/2019

    A Hero’s Burden: COVID-19, Mental Health, and the life of Dr. Lorna Breen

    Posted by Jarred Deptawa11/09/2020

    Mendez v. Westminster: Planting the seed for Desegregation

    Posted by Erin Vento11/10/2020

    Drugs, Alcohol, and Arrests: The Downside to Robert Downey Jr.'s Acting Career

    Posted by Nelly Perez03/02/2020

    Metallica: The Tragedy Overseas

    Posted by Isaiah Torres05/08/2019

    The Pacification of My Lai

    Posted by Sterling Henarie11/28/2020

    BLACK LIVES MATTER- A Change in America

    Posted by Jakob Trevino11/05/2020

    The Wet Railing that Solved the Clarence Hiller Murder Case

    Posted by Diamond Davidson04/07/2019

    Thomas Gallaudet: The Voice of the Deaf

    Posted by Yazmin Garza04/06/2019

    Raping and Killing: "Casualties of War" in Vietnam

    Posted by Doan Mai12/14/2019

    Tesla and the War of the Currents

    Posted by S. Michael Sleeter04/13/2019

    America's Greatest Escape: Alcatraz

    Posted by Shea Slusser11/12/2019

    Henry Lee Lucas: The Tellings of a Serial Confessor

    Posted by Mia Hernandez03/02/2020

    Contemporary America

    Menu
    • US-Industrial United States (1870-1900)
    • US-Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
    • US-Great Depression & WWII (1929-1945)
    • US-Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s)
    • US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • Themes

    SPICE Categories

    Specialty Categories

    Special Themes

    Menu
    • Social History
    • Political History
    • Environmental History
    • Cultural History
    • Economic History
    Menu
    • Art History
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Gender Studies
    • Human Rights
    • Public Health and Medicine
    • International Relations
    • Linguistics
    Menu
    • Military History
    • Music
    • People
    • Psychology
    • Religion
    • Science & Technology
    • Sports
    Menu
    • Catholic Heritage
    • The Year 1968
    • COVID-19
    • Social Justice
    • Spanish Language
  • Showcase

    Showcase Editions

    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
    Menu
    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
  • About

    Course Readings

    Article Indexes

    About Us

    Menu
    • Course Readings – SC 3300 – Nash
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Wieck
    • Course Readings – PO 4334 – Dr Celine
    Menu
    • Course Readings – HS 2321 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – HS 2322 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Whitener
    Menu
    • Our Article/Author Index
    • Award Winning Articles
    Menu
    • Our StMU History Media Project
    • Our Faculty Consultants
    • Our Writers
    • Contact Us
  • African and African American Studies, Cultural History, Descriptive Article, Global History (1900-present), People, Political History, Sports, World History
  • September 23, 2018

Arthur Ashe: A Quiet Champion, A Loud Activist

Arthur Ashe is famously known for being the first African-American man to win a Grand Slam | Courtesy of Gerry Cranham/Life Images Collection/Getty Images.
Arthur Ashe is famously known for being the first African-American man to win a Grand Slam | Courtesy of Gerry Cranham/Life Images Collection/Getty Images.
Micaela Cruz

Micaela Cruz

In the summer of 1943, one of the greatest tennis players in the world was born. His name was Arthur Ashe, and he didn’t know it at the time, but he would grow up to make history. In 1968, at the age of twenty-five, Ashe became the first African-American man to win the US Open. He began dominating the sport of tennis and furthered his success by winning three Grand Slam titles. However, his greatest and most difficult match didn’t take place on the court at all, but rather in South Africa during the seventies.

Life for an African American was difficult enough in the United States, particularly because of the racial segregation of the time. At a young age, Arthur Ashe experienced the effects of racism in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia; he found the discrimination to be something that was part of his everyday life, and he didn’t give much thought to it. As he grew older, Ashe’s encounters with racial discrimination continued to grow. A particular incident during his freshman year at UCLA left Ashe to make a choice that would not only affect him but also his UCLA tennis teammates. UCLA tennis coach, J.D. Morgan, had a meeting with Ashe to explain the issue at hand. The UCLA tennis team had been invited to participate in a weekend tennis tournament at the Balboa Bay Club, located on the California Riviera; however, this club was deemed a “white only” club, and it prohibited African Americans from being part of this exclusive club. Morgan explained that when the invitation had arrived, Ashe was specifically left off the list in order to avoid ruffling feathers. At that point, Ashe was presented with an choice by his coach: “either the team would travel to Balboa without him or they would boycott the tournament and ‘make an issue’ of the exclusion.”1 Ashe’s final decision was to let the team go on to play in the tournament without him. He felt that by participating in a boycott, he would be placing his fellow teammates in an awkward position, which was something he did not want to do. In that moment, Arthur Ashe realized that fighting for what he believed in as well as playing the sport he loved the most would not be as simple as it seemed, and he would encounter the same issue a few years later.2

Arthur Ashe during his college years at UCLA | Courtesy of Hoover Photographic Collection, UCLA Library.

Ashe tried his best to find a balance between tennis and politics, and it was no easy task. Following his groundbreaking 1968 win at the US Open, Ashe began getting questions about racism in general, and about South African apartheid in particular. The term apartheid means “separateness” in the Afrikaan language. Apartheid refers to the notorious South African system of “rigid racial segregation, through which the ruling Afrikaner-based National Party (NP) attempted to create separate cultural, political, and social spaces for white, African, Indian, and colored (mixed race) South Africans.”3 At the time, Ashe was a quiet man, known for trying to stay out of conflict. He tried to be as clear as possible with his statements regarding apartheid so that there would be no speculation on his political views. However, his statements would come back to haunt him during an important and crucial time.4 Not long after his interview, Arthur Ashe became one of the leading voices against the harsh apartheid policy in South Africa. His firsthand encounter with the South African government took place when he applied for a travel visa so that he could participate in the 1970 South African Open. A fellow tennis player, Cliff Drysdale, who was from South Africa, warned Ashe about the low probability of being allowed into the country due to his race. At first, Ashe didn’t believe Drysdale, but after his application was rejected not once but twice, Arthur Ashe began to see the issue at hand.5

Ashe holding up his trophy after winning the US Open in 1968 | Courtesy of USA Today.

The strict apartheid policy in South Africa was put into effect in the late forties and early fifties. The major objective of the apartheid system was “to prepare, to program, and to destine young blacks…for a lifetime of servitude.”6 As mentioned previously, Ashe had spoken out against the apartheid policy in South Africa at the time. Learning about Ashe’s increasing activism and anti-apartheid statements, the South African government claimed that his actions provided cause for the prime minister to deny his request for a visa. In 1969, Arthur Ashe, along with other African-American athletes, were placed on a list of individuals who had been barred, or prevented from entering, South Africa. In the wake of being barred, Ashe took this opportunity to speak up and use his status as a professional athlete to argue for some form of punishment towards South Africa for its racial practice of apartheid. Ashe tried to convince his fellow teammates, who were all white, to protest alongside him, but many expressed little or no interest to assist Ashe in his fight for change. A majority of people thought that Ashe’s decision to fight to play tennis in South Africa was not a good idea from the start. In addition to this, racial activists in the United States were angered at how Ashe had his attention focused solely on the discrimination in South Africa and not on the discrimination his fellow black men and women were facing back home. Ashe had his own personal reasons for becoming an anti-apartheid activist. He viewed the actions of South Africa as an offense directly to himself and to his career. Ashe saw this situation as a way to speak up for those who couldn’t, and one way he did so was by participating in several protests, some occurring in Washington D.C. Ashe viewed his participation in these protests as his direct contribution to the citizens of South Africa, hoping that it would create a path for equality.7

About four years after Ashe’s head-to-head match began with the South African government, he was ultimately granted a visa in 1973. Before he agreed to play in the South African Open, Ashe made a special request. He specifically asked for the attending crowd to be seated in an unsegregated fashion; his request was granted. The day of November 26, 1973 was one of the most significant moments in Arthur Ashe’s life; feeling the pressure to perform his absolute best, Ashe managed to make it all the way to the finals, in which he played against fellow American tennis player, Jimmy Connors. Although Ashe did not win the match, many of South Africa’s citizens, specifically the young black boys, looked at him with great respect and awe.8 However, Ashe’s tennis playing in South Africa was not finished just yet; the following day after losing to Jimmy Connors, he and Dutch tennis player Tom Okker played together to win the doubles championship of the South African Open.9

Arthur Ashe two years after participating in the South African Open | Courtesy of Wikipedia.

While Arthur Ashe continued to be a voice for the anti-apartheid activists, he was still training and winning tennis championships. Prior to playing in the South African Open in 1973, Ashe participated in the Australian Open on January 26, 1970; he went head-to-head with Australian tennis player Robert “Dick” Crealy in a match that was struck by bad weather. The wrath of Mother Nature proved to be no problem to Ashe,as he went on to defeat Crealy in two straight sets, making this his second Grand Slam title win. In 1975, Ashe met defending champion Jimmy Connors on the tennis court for a second time, when both men battled for the Wimbledon Grand Slam title. At one point, it seemed that Connors would definitely take home the title but Ashe stopped that real quick. After breaking Connors’ serve two times, he had finally done it: Arthur Ashe won his third Grand Slam title as well as becoming the first African-American man to win the singles title at Wimbledon.10. Arthur Ashe had several major accomplishments in the tennis world that created a long-lasting legacy for him and that’s what he is most often regarded for. However, his perseverance in his four-year head-to-head match with the South African government is an aspect of Ashe’s life that is often overlooked, but not anymore.

  1. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 8. ↵
  2. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 47-48. ↵
  3. Edward Ramsamy, Andrea L. Santon, Peter J. Seybolt, “Apartheid,” Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2012), https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/apartheid?institutionId=4592. ↵
  4. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 65. ↵
  5. Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad, Days of Grace (New York: Knopf, 1993), 104. ↵
  6. Allen McDuffee, “When Arthur Ashe fought to play tennis in apartheid South Africa, he faced bitter criticism,” Timeline, September 29, 2017, accessed September 8, 2017, https://timeline.com/arthur-ashe-south-africa-99c415a6aee2. ↵
  7. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 98. ↵
  8. Allen McDuffee, “When Arthur Ashe fought to play tennis in apartheid South Africa, he faced bitter criticism,” Timeline, September 29, 2017, accessed September 8, 2017, https://timeline.com/arthur-ashe-south-africa-99c415a6aee2. ↵
  9. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 175. ↵
  10. Eric A. Hurt, Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014), 126, 214. ↵

Tags from the story

  • Arthur Ashe, South African Apartheid, Tennis

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email
Micaela Cruz

Micaela Cruz

Author Portfolio Page

A Bloody First of August: Charles Whitman, “Texas Tower Sniper”

August 1, 1966 was just like any other day in Austin, Texas. It was sunny

Read More »

This Post Has 42 Comments

  1. Jake Faryniarz
    Jake Faryniarz 6 Oct 2020 Reply

    This is a very interesting article about Arthur Ashe. Since he was the first African American tennis professional he changed the way tennis was perceived. During that time he faced a lot of backlash for being black and he had to fight through the struggle and fight against racism in tennis. Since he was such a great athlete he was able to show that any race can win a major tournament in tennis which helped inspired many people to follow in his footsteps. This was a great article and it shows how Arthur Ashe was able to leave a legacy on tennis and his push to fight racism.

  2. Avatar
    Nicolas Llosa 13 Sep 2020 Reply

    This is a really well-written article. It describes how tennis changed Arthur Ashe and how he changed tennis. He faced many challenges throughout his career but he still stood out in the tennis world. His perseverance to fight against racism in tennis really set an excellent example for society as a whole. The way he was able to keep winning major tournaments and fighting against racial segregation at the same time shows his strength, discipline, and courage. Overall, I think this article was very interesting and showed a different side of Arthur Ashe’s life and how he also took his proactive stance against racism to tennis.

Comments navigation

Previous commentPrevious

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

StMU History Media

A Student Organization of St. Mary's University of San Antonio Texas

Sponsors

  • College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, St. Mary's University
  • Department of History, St. Mary's University
  • Department of Political Science, St. Mary's University
  • Center for Catholic Studies, St. Mary's University

Support Services

  • The Learning Assistance Center, St. Mary's University
  • Louis J. Blume Library Services, St. Mary's University
  • STRIVE Career Center, St. Mary's University
  • Academic Technology Services, St. Mary's University

About

  • About Us
  • Our Authors
  • Our Archive
  • Contacts

© All rights reserved

Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest