I will never forget watching Arthur Ashe at Wimbledon when he played in the final against Jimmy Conners. One could sense Arthur's fierce concentration and I will always remember how he draped the towel over his head between games, focusing, concentrating on what he meeded to do to defeat the brash Conners. What a thrill it was when he won the final point and put his fist in the air in triumph. I was dumbfounded when some in the media portayed his celebration as a "black power" salute! He won with skill, concentration, smarts and above all, grace. It had nothing to do with race, but all to do with just wanting to win.
23
No man is perfect ... but 'we' don't 'come any better' than Arthur Ashe.
If you're too young to have 'witnessed' him ... you can imagine Mr. Ashe if you can imagine the precise opposite of our species' most faulty refuse -- such as ... and perhaps 'singularly' ... donald trump.
13
Read this, and cheer, or weep tears of joy!
VMFA acquires massive sculpture by artist Kehinde Wiley, created in response to Confederate monuments
By COLLEEN CURRAN Richmond Times-Dispatch Jun 20, 2019
16
RVA is an interesting city.
History flows from so many communities.
Time to at least rephrase the narratives at the monuments.
I can't think of another country where the losing traitor side had numerous monuments built in their honor.
It's pretty much about control.
Time to write the facts and move into the future.
13
People don't understand that the support for the Confederacy and the statutues isn't simply just about racisim by white people. Like people's support for the local home team, or the state football team, it's about local pride and identity. Many Southerners didn't have slaves, weren't the 1% of the time that made states rights the spin story to exit the Union, weren't burning racists. Some were, or were to a degree. But for many, people everywhere have local pride and identity.
The core problem is that they went along with leaders and the wealthy class to a doomed war based on a moral wrong. And their local pride has become mixed with racism.
So some of the symbols that supported the Confederacy have too much of a racial tint, like those of Confederate leaders and generals. I have mixed feelings for the statutes of the young men, cannon fodder really, that gave their lives for home town, home state.
The young boys, like the US soldiers who sacrificed in Vietnam for a morally corrupt war, should still be honored.
It's a complex distinction, but specific to the reality.
11
Mr. Streeter, I ache when I think how slowly social change comes in the United States. My paternal great-great grandfathers were in Mississippi units that fought in the Eastern Theater. My daughters, like you, have ancestors who were slaves. I wrote a book on slavery in Mark Twain's world that was published by the University of Missouri back in 2003. It will not surprise you that although they sell dozens of titles in the museum bookstore you can't buy a copy of my book at the Mark Twain museum in Hannibal for the same reason it took Richmond so long to give Mr. Ashe's name to the Boulevard. I had to fight to get the slightest mention of slavery in Hannibal. Twain's family owned slaves, leased slaves, and had a slave girl sold to satisfy a debt. People on the Hannibal City Council branded me anti-Hannibal.
White privilege is so deeply entrenched. To contemplate your white privilege means to acknowledge that you aren't self-made. This is something Americans are loathe to do. We desperately want to believe our myths, both large and small.
It seems that every time I want to relish the positive racial changes that have occurred in my world since my birth in 1954, my daughters share some petty indignity they have experienced at the hands of a store clerk, police officer, or work associate. I hope that Richmond will continue on the long, slow arc of liberty. I'm sure there will be more disappointments along the way. Thanks for a great and thought-provoking read.
24
The Arthur Ashe tunnel mural was created by a local artist group called UNITY St. Started by well-known Richmond artists, Sir James Thornhill and Hamilton Glass.
These guys, anong many more local artist, are doing great work all over the city and are a big reason Richmond is choosing the best path forward!
Arthur Ashe would be proud!
#RichmondMuralist #AsheRVA
9
I was born in a segregated Richmond Hospital in 1949 and attended its racially separate public schools through to 1967, the year of my graduation from Richmond's all black Armstrong High School. I moved away for College and law school, then settled in DC. Richmond will always be home, a place the memory of which yet and still feels racially divided, and now I know I will see it that wat until I die. There have been stunning exceptions to this view - the astonishing electoral victories of Doug Wilder who rose to hold statewide office and Governor - obliterating centuries of racial barriers. But predictably, Richmond settled back quickly into its separate racial camps. I hope the Ashe Boulevard will become an essential and lethal stab in the white supremacist metaphor that is Monument Avenue.
16
Very nice piece; great scope, well written. I enjoyed it.
9
My mother-in-Law, Black Woman graduated from college in South Carolina in 1928, she left the South and settled in White Plains. My wife and I visited her town, work on family genealogy- I asked her if she wanted to return to her roots? A vehement “No,” all her memories were painful, her stories were horrendous.. you cannot erase the scars of racism
9
Two thoughts come to mind along with my feelings of joy over the renaming of this important Richmond Street.
I know that there’s a reason that this street has been named Boulevard. It was part of what was to be a Southern Cross. Civil War Generals and “heroes” were to be honored with more monuments along it.
General A P Hill is buried under his monument on the north end of Boulevard. The Museum of Arts is located on the old Civil War Veterans land.
My 2nd thought:
In the 80’s I worked for The Martin Agency when it overlooked the Robert E. Lee Monument.
Once, I was asked to represent the firm at a city-wide effort to bring people of different races together. Kent Lovelace, one of the few black individuals there also agreed.
Driving together to the conference, we passed these Civil War monuments. I asked Kent how it felt to drive past them every day.
Kent replied, “Oh, I just pay attention to my heroes on Monument Avenue and ignore these generals.” Surprised, I said, “Your heroes, Kent who are your heroes on Monument Avenue?”
Kent said, “My people laid this huge Avenue. Every single one of these cobblestones is a Monument to them and their efforts.” While I’m white, I’ve never thought of Richmond’s landmark street in the same way.
Cheers to all the heroes in this world who’ve done so much to enable so many. I’m beyond happy that Boulevard will be known after one of this city’s true leaders and a hero to so many including Kurt Streeter, author of this article.
40
The story is about as far removed from sports as you can get.
4
Change in Richmond is never easy; molasses is faster. I've been tied to the city my whole seventy years - my paternal grandmother and her people have a long history there. And I love Monument Avenue. It is beautiful, exclusive of import, the monuments are inspiring; I will always thrill to an equestrian statue, its message of courage and sacrifice. So it is a great and wonderful thing that the city is seeking to find a counter balance on the issue of race. But Arthur Ashe Boulevard is a bad answer. In the words of the poet, "childegeared". Much is wrong with it, first and foremost - another black athlete as a black role model - can we find a more trite stereotype ? My personal favorite: Scott-Turner Boulevard (Dred and Nat, respectively). Born in Virginia, died fighting for their beliefs, for freedom. A bold, yet perfect match to the Confederate heroes on Monument. My distant second choice would be naming it after the great William "Bill" Bojangles. A far less courageous choice, but maybe politically less sensitive, and I do love the sound of "Bojangles Boulevard". A breathe of levity Richmond lacks. But a tennis player ? ICK ! This choice should have been about courage matching courage. Instead it reeks of political expediency. Hopefully, the people of Richmond will pool votes and dollars and rename more streets, erect a few more statues; these three would make a good start.
@Charles Dawson
Confederate heroes? I have no doubt that to the men and women who fought and killed to destroy the Union pf Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson, these men on horseback were heroes. And any soldier that takes up arms and fights shows a form of courage to risk their life. But at a certain point we have to look past their obvious courage and examine what they were actually fighting for before we erect statues to honor them. Museums, civil war battlefields are all proper places to have representations of the history of that war. But the things we put up statues to in our city squares should represent the best aspects of our history and culture. And there is no way to hide the fact that these generals were fighting for the end of the United States and the preservation of slavery. They liked to term that horrific practice as a culture and a way of life but the reality is it was just simply the denial of the humanity of African Americans. And this cult of the civil war was a part of the propaganda that allowed the Jim Crow laws to prosper and linger, a lesser form of slavery but still a denial of the full humanity of African Americans that we are still struggling with today. Remove them, put them in museums, and stop giving honor to a cause that has no honor in it.
18
First, Arthur Ashe was much more than just an athlete. Taking some time to read about his life is worthwhile. Monuments are meant to honor persons. The subjects of those confederate monuments fought to perpetuate the hideous system of slavery. They would never look upon me as a brother, a citizen, a human being equal to them. I look at those confederate monuments with disgust. Bojangles Boulevard. Bill Robinson at the height of his career would not have been able to stay at most hotels in Richmond. He would not have been able to buy property in many areas of the city. His kids would not have gone to school with white kids. But you wouldn’t think of any of that part of his life. His tap dancing just makes you smile, so you wouldn’t mind seeing his name on a street, while Arthur Ashe, who advocated for the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa and is a true son of Richmond, you don’t want to be reminded of him. Says a lot about you.
20
Few realize that Arthur Ashe was in ROTC at UCLA and was an officer in the U.S. Army in the Adjutant General Corps from 1966-1969 serving at West Point and coaching the USMA tennis team. His brother, Johnnie Ashe, enlisted in the Marine Corps and volunteered for a second tour in Vietnam to ensure that his brother could play in the Davis Cup. Arthur Ashe and his family represent the best of America.
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@James
I am the age that Arthur Ashe would be now. I grew up in Lynchburg, Va. where Dr. Johnson coached Arthur, Althea Gibson and many more on his handmade court in his back yard. We watched Arthur play on the public courts because Dr. Johnson wanted to show us the discipline and respect his young students were being taught for all, black and white.
Dr. Johnson’s homemade tennis court is now being reconstructed by the USTA. Arthur Ashe knew so much more than that of the rest of the white and black worlds in Virginia at that time, thanks to his mentor and coach Dr. Johnson. A statue of both men would speak volumes to all Virginians .
35
I am delighted that the street is being renamed for Ashe. I believe that the statues that my family members helped erect of the Confederate generals (one a cousin) and president should come down and that upon the plinths the country's leading artists and architects descended from slaves should make something new. That way we would never forget as a society the awfulness of these celebrations of the defenders of slavery, but also we would be able to say that we have moved on. No need to blow up the statues as so often happened in Ireland; they belong in a history museum.
28
A fantastic comment. Thank you.
5
I'm not young and I followed Arthur Ashe's career avidly. I'm white. I have no doubt about Arthur Ashe's quiet heroism. Thanks for this article.
It's a shame that racism persists throughout this country, not just the South. The corporate media's assertion that Obama's presidential election had propelled us into a post-racial age sounded like foolishness to me in 2008 and has certainly been given the lie by today's alleged president. More people like Arthur Ashe assuming positions of leadership in all fields would be a great boon to all of us.
20
Might be a good idea to add Virginia or VA to the title.
I thought this was about Queens or Staten Island.
1
On a recent trip to VA. I drove to Richmond, which I was delighted to see prospering and with all kinds of "stuff' related to the Civil War including an American Civil War Museum. In fact I was there to see the State House -- and the VMFA (on N. Arthur Ashe Blvd.) Also wanted to see Monument Avenue -- IMO much ado about nothing. The somewhat oversized figures of three generals-- equestrian monuments - are impressive in size but not in number (there are six statues in all with the oceanographer Maury and Arthur Ashe) and IMO should be left alone as well as the figure of Jeff Davis. Anyway, getting to Monument Ave-- now Arthur Ashe Blvd. was quite tricky with the various one ways -- and I thought the statue of Arthur Ashe holding a racket and book with adoring children at the base more personal and more relate-able than those grandiose markers of time past. (At least they weren't gilded like the Gen Sherman Monument in NYC,)
Material evidence of the past in plain view makes it much harder to shove history under the rug. Has Lee Circle in NOLA been renamed since the statue of Robert E. Lee -- whose estate Arlington is now a national cemetery -- was removed?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-arlington-national-cemetery-came-to-be-145147007/
OTOH maybe all of the statues of war mongers should be updated with graffiti spelling peace in many languages?
3
In all this discussion of statues in Richmond, nobody bothers to mention that Richmond has long had a statue honoring Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. It’s not in a prominent place—I think it’s where he grew up, i.e., the downside of Richmond—and it’s not on a high plinth. But it predates the Ashe statue by many years.
12
Thank God for Arthur Ashe and the many persons of color like him. Full of grace, strength and dignity. Able to persevere no matter what.
Not all white Southerners are full of hate and bigotry. Not all white Richmonders still fight the Civil War. Some of us embrace a diverse world that's respectful and hopeful. And some of us couldn't be more proud of this moment - a public tribute to man who still serves as an example for others to follow.
25
Very thoughtful article and great to hear about a personal recipient of Arthur Ashe's generosity. I don't think there ever was a photo uncovered of the attorney general in blackface. He admitted to using blackface in the 1980s during a college party.
1
"My arms grew hot, prickly. My legs would not move. My stomach cramped. Was I going to throw up? I felt sweat on my forehead. Tears pooled in my eyes. They were tears of sadness, then despair, finally anger."
He's kidding, right? Thank god Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill didn't buckle at the knees at the mere sight of a mass of metal.
2
You don’t understand. You didn’t grow up in a system where you were considered less than other human beings, where you could not go to school with whites, could not stay at hotels unless they were designated for blacks, had to use only certain public restrooms and drinking fountains (if you could find them). You can’t know what it feels like to look at monuments which honor a system which did not see you as an equal human being.
17
As a Richmonder who actually lives on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, I really have no opinion on the name change. But there are other Black Richmoders who have done much much more foer not only Richmond, but the black community in general. Maggie Walker was a Black Business Woman who started her own bank and was it's first President. She was also an educator. She fully supported and invested her banks money ion her community. Here in Richmond, they call it 2 Street. She started her 1st bank called the St. Luke Penny Saving Bank, and this was in 1902. She was an aggressive and ardent supporter of her community. As a Black Woman in 1902 she was light years ahead of even white women in Richmond. She help start through her banks many black owned businesses. She served as a model for business people in general. She absolutely derserves Praise. I wish Council Woman Grey had learned more about black Richmonders who set the seeds for sucessful black owned business in Richmopnd. The last reiteration of her St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, which we now call Consolidated Bank and Trust, is still in existence.
34
@PerAxel And worth noting: a bronze statue of Maggie Walker was erected in Richmond in 2017. The National Park Service opened the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Landmark in 1975.
22
It's already on Google Maps. Nice!
7
This is very cool and makes a great point. Richmond which is a fine town has this Stain. As it slowly gets rid of The Stain of slavery it will be a great town. This is the perfect response to the traitorous lost cause. Next, the statues of these traitors to America should be put in a warehouse open to the public so anyone can see them - if they really want to. The rest of us can smile as we go down Arthur Ashe Boulevard - I know I will.
8
@Ken H You will sometimes hear this narrative, I do not know how truthful it is, that the only city that processed more slaves, that had more slave prisons and auction houses than Richmond VA. was New Orleans. Atlanta was a far inland city and in a not very urban area. Now Charleston SC was a port. It did recieve slaves. But Richmond was the heart and soul of business and manufacturing in the South. That is why IT was chosen to become the capital of the Confederacy. The James is still a great river and easy to navigate. This history in Richmond is paved over with parking lots, a gas station, the interstate and some buildings. It is in the area we call the Shockoe Slip today. There still are buildings that served as hosptials from the Civil War still standing. Where as Charleston has used its slavery history to promote tourism, which it does very well, it is not an inexpensive city. Whereas Richmond has always been embarrassed by it's Civil War history, and especially so when it comes to slavery.
3
There is a better way.
1
My goodness, one of these days maybe the French will wake up and not honor Napoleon....think what he did to his countrymen in Russia.
2
It's about time.
1
Arthur was a hero of mine, I was so sad when he passed, a great man. We need more heroes like this, not like Muhammad Ali who refused to fight for his country. I respect Ali as a fighter but not as an American. He did as much for as America as Trump has.
We need to choose who we elevate to hero status in the country more thoughtfully.
2
@David
Just for the record, Ali paid a very stiff price for declaring himself a CO. Trump paid no price for shirking his obligation to serve by way of his Daddy securing a bogus medical deferment. HUGE difference.
17
@David
I'm sorry that you have a difficult time seeing Ali, a conscientious objector, as a hero. Though his style--brash, outspoken, showy--was 180 degrees from Ashe, his principled stand against racism and war was courageous and came at great personal cost to him. I hope you might research it more and be open to a different view.
17
@David
This Westchester native (Yonkers) disagrees with you. Muhammad Ali was very brave to point out that he felt he should not fight the Viet Cong for "freedom" that blacks in the US did not have at that time. His commitment to his religion and his principles never wavered, even when he went broke. President Bone Spurs dishonored the memory of those were killed and the service of those who survived by saying his own personal Vietnam was fighting off venereal disease.
17
We are moving toward taking over the legislature in the Commonwealth. Hopefully that will happen and we will see how long these monuments to the "Lost Cause" will last. The thing that bothers me the most is that these monuments have little to do with the Civil War but rather much to do with an apologist movement that took place after the Civil war ended. Dismantling these remnants should do much to bring all Virginians closer together.
15
@AT2 You are 100% wrong, removing them doesn't change or fix/repair anything, educating people and teaching about what happened is what is needed to ensure nothing like it ever happens again. Just like the Nazi concentration camps in Europe they were not destroyed, but broken down, renovated and preserved to teach people and show what happened so as to not allow it to occur again. removing it doesn't change or take away from what happened it just tries to hide it to make it go away the wrong way to prevent it.
4
I’ll be there. An historic moment. I’m amazed this didn’t happen sooner for 2 main reasons: 1. Ashe was not a political figure. He was the epitome of a man of character and decency. 2. The renaming of of Boulevard did not require the removal of any other name. This street actually was just called “Boulevard.” How weird is that.
So, I’ll be there, taking pictures, enjoying the historic moment. I just hope it is a diverse crowd representing all races and generations.
17
Arthur Ashe was one of my heroes growing up, his tennis skills when I was a competitor, his coaching skills as I got older and watched him captain the Davis Cup team, and his humanitarian side later in life. Soft spoken and mild mannered, with the heart of a lion like so many good leaders are. Thank you Mr. Ashe!
I now live a block away from the street about to be named after him. I sure wish we could move his statue to the spot where Monument crosses that street. He'd finally be getting the notice he deserves. Based on how fast this town changes, it won't happen this century.
Has Richmond turned a corner? I don't know but in the South there is a phrase that may describe it. I think it means one is ready to begin considering a notion before actually acting upon it.
We're fixin' to.
23
@Brian The Ashe statue is an inferior work of art--from some angles it looks like he is threatening a group of urchins with his tennis racket. If it must be moved, a better place for it would be by the Byrd Park tennis courts, where there is a dinky little statue of Columbus at the end of Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
2
58 year-old white woman here. Arthur Ashe was a hero of mine since I read about him in a book of American sports greats when I was ten. Back then, he impressed me with two things -- how he went airborne on his serve, and his unflappable calm. Not 'til many years later did realize how much more important the latter must have been.
He was respectable for so much more than sport, though he stands out as a master of his inner self in an age that spawned the bratty on-course outbursts of Connors, McEnroe and Nastase. Ashe was also known for encouraging black youth to pursue higher education, on the grounds that there are comparatively far fewer chances to be a professional athlete, and a career in, say, engineering, is much longer-lived.
And he never lost sight of the fact that he was a part of a larger world besides professional athletics. Richmond could find no finer individual for whom to name a street than the man who said, "I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments."
46
I live in Richmond - a block away from the Lee statue located on Monument Avenue. I plan to walk down to the dedication to honor a man such as Arthur Ashe. It is long past time that not only is the ""Lost Cause" still honored, but that those that fought for equality are also honored. Thank you for this excellent article!
33
It's a start. Slowly but surely put more statues of great men and sports figures like Ashe up and slowly retire the Civil War traitors and that is what they were to museums or cemeteries.
If it wasn't for Lincoln, with malice towards none and charity for all, and Grant, the likes of Davis, Lee, Jackson etc. would have been swinging from a tree in 1865.
22
@Paul
And what about the Revolutionary War traitors? Lots of traitors out there for sure!!
1
@Paul And would the probable decades of guerrilla war that followed have been a happy outcome?
1
@Auntie Mame-Thank you for your reply. I do not fully understand your post.
The bottom line is that usually the victor decides who gets hung and Washington won the war not the British.
If you mean Washington should have hung the people who did not support the revolution, America was not a functional, recognized country like it was in Lincoln's time.
3
I remember every time I drove south through Richmond seeing the giant mills of Southern States company and their SS logo emblazoned on them--for years the logo was unnervingly like the Waffen SS version. They were prominently displayed when viewed from the highway and I have often thought, given the bigotry and racism still present in Richmond, that the symbolism was intentional.
6
@BaghdadVet I moved here from Minneapolis after college in the late 70’s. I have always felt the same about that horrible logo. Thanks for mentioning it here today.
7
@BaghdadVet anybody can make something up conspiracy . Looks like something like that so it's really something else than it is to fortify a point in somebody's imagination.
1
What a wonderful article! Arthur Ashe is an American treasure. I am a black woman who is also a Civil War buff (sounds like an oxymoron, I know) and my boyfriend and I visited Richmond last year, went to some battlefields, a slavery museum, rode bikes along the James River, and ate some delicious food. I'm rooting for Richmond to celebrate the influence and contributions of black people. America always gives me hope! Thank you for sharing this story!
48
Thank you so much for this wonderful article. Arthur Ashe was a hero to me growing up, (I'm both white and southern) and happened to be in England when he defeated Jimmy Conners @ Wimbledon for Men's Championship in 1975, just shy of 44 years ago. Oddly, I assumed the British, with their stiff, proper demeanors would have been solidly behind a true gentleman on the grass, Arthur Ashe. However, almost to a person, the Brits I visited with supported the bratty, vulgarian Conners. I've never figured out exactly why. When in Richmond in 2004 or so, I made sure to take all my 4 kids down the Monuments row, but told them of the surprise that awaited them at the end of the boulevard. I teared up explaining why Arthur Ashe's presence on that street was so important to the city, to the south, and to the country, and to me. He is a genuine hero. My kids cannot appreciate how this world has changed. Thank you again for a wonderful article.
33
Let us celebrate the naming of the street after Arthur Ashe by Richmond, VA. He was a tennis great and if anyone deserves having a street named for him, Ashe does. However, this doesn't have anything to do with the Confederate monuments. We cannot deny history or change it for our convenience which is what the anti-Confederate monument movement is about. It actually distracts from the discussion of the great tennis player, Arthur Ashe, to mix his story in with that of a war long, long gone. You cannot change history so live with it. Arthur Ashe was a wonderful tennis player who surely inspired a lot of young people to take up tennis. Kudos to Richmond.
8
I've never understood the argument that melds history with large statues in public places.
There's so much history in any one country you could never learn it all. From politics to wars to inventions, music, literature, art. Men and women make history. Whites, African Americans and Native people make history.
But when it comes to massive statues designed to honor people who made history we make a choice. There are only so many public squares.
The question for me is: which people are we going to celebrate?
Does it always have to be white men who fought battles? And immoral battles at that?
It was pointed out in this story that the Confederate soldiers depicted in Richmond were put there to intimidate black citizens. That alone should be enough reason to pull them down.
Taking down the Confederate monuments doesn't change history. Slavery and the civil war still will have happened. But the act of taking them down will make new history. And it would be something to be proud of.
63
@Bill Anyone can say things are such and such ,because of this and that ,doesn't make it so.
1
@Jack Wallace, Jr.
The anti-Confederate monument movement is very much about accurately portraying history. In what other lands do the victors celebrate the leaders of the vanquished? Traitors to the United States, the leaders of the Confederacy should be remembered for their support of slavery and desire to shatter the nation, nothing more and nothing less. It is the supporters of the monuments that struggle to live with history. So much so that they wouldn't permit a young Ashe to share their tennis courts and, in the present day, grappled with honoring him by naming a street after him. Embrace history? I wish those who glorify the Confederacy would do so--and quickly at that!
15