I was at my sister and brother-in-law‘s place in Brooklyn, New York while on my tour for the new album, Zion this past week. One afternoon, I turned on the TV, and saw a documentary about Arthur Ashe that immediately grabbed me. I knew a little bit about the pro tennis player who was the first Black player to win a lot of different titles. I also knew that he was a member of a organization started by civil rights stalwart, Bayard Rustin, or Black Americans Supporting Israel Committee (or B.A.S.I.C.), but I learned a lot more from the documentary.
Two back-to-back quotes that struck me the most had to do with where we are right now in my opinion. It was kind of funny to me that the bookends of the documentary tried to push this modern Social Justice uniformity type of narrative when Arthur actually spoke against that very thing. Ashe was against any type of cult-like rallying around any skin color, whether White or Black. He was often called a sellout, Uncle Tom, and all kinds of other names. But Ashe was not a sellout. He strived to be true to himself and make moves when he felt he was ready, rather than due to peer pressure from people with agendas that may or may not line up with his.
The brutal mutilation and murder of Emmett Till in 1955 was one of the events that moved Ashe to be more outspoken; something that many appreciated him for, and many did not. And the more he spoke out, the more opposition he faced, even globally. The apartheid government of South Africa labeled him persona non grata in 1971 for speaking out against the South African government’s evil apartheid system.
The two quotes are from both Ashe and long time critic who eventually became a friend. In response to the mounting pressure from other Black leaders to use his platform to speak out against injustices and fight the system of racism, Ashe says:
“You grow up Black in the American south, you have no control. Your life is proscribed. And then in the 60s, then you had Black ideologues trying to tell me what to do. All the time I am saying to myself, “Hey, when do I get to decide what I want to do?” And so I have always been so fiercely protective with anyone wanting to control my life.”
Then, Professor Harry Edwards, sociologist and civil rights activists said:
“Arthur was the first person to really push me to understand that Black orthodoxy is not an acceptable substitute for institutionalized white racism. That it has to be about people having the freedom to make their own decisions in terms of how they approach this struggle. Otherwise, what are we fighting for?”
It was obvious that Ashe had a deep concern for justice. He simply went about expressing it in way that did not make sense to a lot of people at times. He was pressed and attacked when he was silent, and he was pressed and attacked when he was outspoken, but he made his decisions based on what he felt he needed to do. He had the integrity to turn down the noise and do what he felt was right in the time he felt the most appropriate, while still eventually becoming the first Black tennis player to win Wimbledon in 1975.
Arthur Ashe unfortunately died in 1993 at the young age of 49 from major health issues including AIDS, which he contracted by blood infection during his heart surgery. He left behind his wife Jeanne and adopted daughter Camera.
It is a really good doc for anyone interested. Just look up ‘Citizen Ashe.’
Wow -- I had no idea about Arthur Ashe's position! Really interesting! This would be a great piece to develop and try to place in something like Bari Weiss's substack. I notice a lot of people who have substacks of their own like to promote them and drive traffic to them by getting into Bari's substack.