Raymond Arsenault, the featured speaker at this Marshall Center Lecture, described the life of Arthur Ashe, which he learned so much about when he wrote his book Arthur Ashe: A Life. Ashe is a well known tennis player and probably the most famous person to come out of Richmond. Growing up in Richmond was not easy, as Ashe had to grow up under the Jim Crow laws. In high school Ashe moved to St. Louis, a more liberal city. Tennis is a predominantly and breaking into it as a black man was no easy feet. I was really shocked when Arsenault talked about a coach Ashe had, who told him that if a ball a white person hit was out, but close to the line he should hit to avoid any conflict. To me, that story really illustrated how difficult it was for him to be a black athlete breaking into a predominantly white sport. Furthermore, he was doing this with the backdrop of the civil rights movement, which is father asked him not to get involved in.
The focus of this lecture, however, was on how Ashe was a greater human being than he was an athlete. Arsenault made a point to illustrate that Ashe transcends the world of sports and was an example of civility with courage. Arsenault talked about what an intellectual Ashe was and that he was engaged with the world in every way. His best trait was what a good listener he is. He always wanted to hear what other people had to say, even if it wasn’t something he agreed with and this is the essence of civility. Ashe also seemed to give so much. He created the National Junior Tennis League and used Tennis as a method to teach inner city kids life skills. Ashe was constantly asked to give workshops to kids and he never said no even when he had so many obligations. Even better, he never asked for a penny for it. Ashe’s aim was to give as much of himself to these kids as he could. He was not looking to take credit, he was looking for anyway to help others.
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