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Arthur Ashe rose to prominence as the first black superstar in men’s tennis , capturing the men’s singles championship at the United States Open in 1968 and atWimbledon in 1975. Later, he authored A Hard Road to Glory (a three-volume history of the African American athlete) and served as president of Artists and Athletes against Apartheid. Arthur Ashe Q: How important do you feel sports have been and continue to be in breaking down racial barriers and combating racism in this country? ASHE: I think the importance of it has varied according to geography, which section of the country you’re in. It has varied according to how well society in a particular place has reacted to integration. It varies with educational attainment.And I think it varies with the assertiveness of the athletes themselves. My best example is in the South. Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision, was rendered in April of 1954. I was eleven years old, in Baker Elementary School, and I remember hearing the scuttlebutt,“Oh, my goodness; in September, five months from now, we’re going to be going to school with white kids.”And it never happened.The point I’m making is, to the extent that you could find some vehicle for socialization to ease the integration process in the South, no question, sports was important. Extremely important, because it was the one place in the South—in public gatherings at high-school stadiums, college stadiums, or wherever—where once things started, you really didn’t care who was sitting next to you.You might care who your daughter or son married,or who was in church next to you,or at your club.But in the stadium, you didn’t care who sat next to you. Q: It has been said that Sam Cunningham [who scored four touchdowns in one game for USC against the University of Alabama] did more for integration in Alabama than anyone. ASHE: No question about it. It was that famous football day at the University of Alabama in 1970. USC had an all-black backfield; and obvi98 THOMAS HAUSER ously, Alabama had an all-white team. And USC ran all over Alabama. Bear Bryant just sort of, I think his quote was,“Well, I guess we’d better start recruiting some of those colored boys.”Yeah, that was a big day. Q:What is the state of major sports in America today?What more should they be doing in racial areas? ASHE: Well, I definitely think they should be trying to recruit more minorities into positions other than athletes on the field.We now have some black owners of a professional franchise,the Denver Nuggets.I think baseball has a lot of unrealized potential in the black community that it lost some years ago.As I understand it, even by baseball’s own estimate, only about eight percent of the fans at baseball games are black.That could be a lot higher if they marketed it correctly. It’s still the national pastime. People will still, under the right conditions, go out and watch it. But you can’t take it for granted that they’re going to show up just because their teams are doing well.I also would like to see more—although we’re starting to see more—minority faces among the television sports commentators , both anchors and analysts. I think the biggest thing they could do is put in place a mechanism or a process whereby a lot of the present athletes are counseled in making that transition from professional athlete to civilian. There are a lot of black athletes who made a lot of money in the past,who retired, who are now broke.We’re talking broke.Their marriages, if they had any, are busted up. Some of them are on drugs or they’re alcoholics, and there needs to be a lot of things done in that area, where they come in and learn to live in a manner that can be sustained.The San Francisco 49ers are doing this.Harry Edwards works with the 49ers.I think he’s also working with the Giants and theWarriors.And they think that’s one of the reasons why the 49ers win;because they work at cultural harmony on that team. People really pull for one another. It’s not just because they’ve got Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig. Q...

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