Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era

Introduction

The grandstands of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, brimmed with excitement on September 9, 1968, the date of the first-ever U.S. Open championship match. Ever since the United States Lawn Tennis Association made the venue its home in 1915, the crowds that entered the turnstiles hadwatched as the best tennis players in the world—Don Budge, Jack Kramer, and Rod Laver, among others—battled each other for athletic supremacy. This match was different. Tom Okker of the Netherlands took the court that day dressed in white from head to toe, wearing white shoes, white socks, white shorts, and a white shirt, and bouncing a white ball. On the other side of the net stood a lanky, thinly muscled young man standing six foot one and weighing 155 pounds. He too wore white, but his skin was black. As Arthur Ashe Jr., a native of the segregated South, prepared to serve his first ball, the significance of the moment set in. Not since Althea Gibson’s win at Wimbledon in 1957 had thetennisworldwitnessedsuchadominatingAfricanAmericanstar.Neverhad men’s tennis seen a black man exhibit such an overpowering serve, a lightningquick backhand, and near-perfect mechanics. A writer for Life commented that Ashe “seemed a spectator to his own success,” an observation of the ease with which he worked.1 Tom Okker had little chance. In the first set, Ashe served like Bob Gibson pitched, driving home fifteen aces with a degree of pinpoint control that kept the quick-footed Okker constantly on the run. Okker excelled at longer points, but Ashe’s serve-and-volley game ensured that Okker “didn’t get enough tennis .” The final set saw an exasperated Okker return one serve wide, another long, and a third into the net. Through five sets, Ashe exuded precision, con- fidence, and a sense of belonging. “Paul Hornung had his harem, Ty Cobb his uncontrollable rage. Arthur Ashe has his cool,” remarked one journalist. Even Introduction 2 arthur ashe themainstreampress,longcriticalofthebehaviorofblackathletessuchasJack Johnson and Muhammad Ali, concluded that Ashe represented a “gentleman’s gentleman.” He refused to scream, throw tantrums, protest a call, or showboat. Commenting on his calm demeanor, one writer suggested that someone check his pulse for signs of life.2 Yet Ashe was more alive and aware of his place in the world than ever before. He understood that his victory in front of thousands of cheering white fans meant a great deal to black America. Throughout the turbulent 1960s, America watchedasAfricanAmericansheldsit-insatsegregatedlunchcounters,rodein the front of buses, and marched on Washington and across the Edmund Pettus BridgeinSelma.JimBrowndominatedthegridiron,andMuhammadAlishocked the world by defeating Sonny Liston and announcing his conversion to the Nation of Islam. Now, Ashe stood on the victory platform raising the U.S. Open trophy, crowned King Arthur of a sport controlled by white country-club elites. Asheusedhisplatformthatdaytodomorethanholdupaheavytrophy.Heused it to talk about black America, to expound upon his belief in “nonviolent militancy .” During and after his time as a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Ashe had become aware of “a social revolution among people my age. I finally stopped trying to become part of white society and started to establish a black identity for myself.”3 Ashe’s “black identity” and the ways in which it shaped and was shaped by the black freedom movement stands at the heart of this book. Readers of African American sports history have grown familiar with the lives, times, achievements , and struggles of famous black athletes of the past, a long and celebrated listthatincludesJackJohnson,JesseOwens,JoeLouis,JackieRobinson,Althea Gibson, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, and Muhammad Ali. Their stories and contributions to American society remain legendary: Louis’s first-round knockout of German Max Schmeling in 1938, reaffirming American democracy on the cusp of the Second World War; Robinson’s stoic ability to endure racial slurs, bean balls, and rabid discrimination in integrating Major League Baseball; and Ali’s masteryinthering,whichwasexceededonlybyhisoutspokennessoutsideofit.4 For their part, historians and journalists have often categorized black athletes in one of two ways. On one side stand the accommodationists, athletes like Owens, Louis, and Gibson, who played hard, broke records, and achieved celebrity stardom but remained mostly silent on the issue of race. These prominent men and women contributed to the black cause by winning on the field and serving as positive examples for blacks and whites. They chose to pioneer throughtheirathleticperformances.“Someoneoncewrote,”explainedGibson [3.129.39.55] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 16...