Activists straddling the civil rights and power movements, he fought against racism and from the Political Center and welcomed public and private debate. Our speaker today will explore as hisearly life as well life as an intellectual. Hall teaches courses and africanAmerican History and the history of popular culture. A native of suburban chicago, he b. A. From st. Joseph in 2006 and004 and 2011. His scholarship has appeared in the journal of African American social sciencese review. His biography of arthur ashe she tennisrthur a and justice in the civil rights by johnspublished Hopkins University press. His work focuses on the intersection of popular and political culture, particularly the relationship between sport and the black Freedom Movement. So please join me in giving a hall. Hs welcome to eric [applause] eric good afternoon. Thank you so much for having me here at richmond today to talk about my book and to talk about ashe as a whole. Would like to thank the Virginia Historical society for participating in this lecture series. I am honored to be with you today to discuss the life and legacy of richmonds own, arthur ashe. I would also be remiss if i did not thank my wife, christina, for allowing me to be here today. Newborn at home, so she is bearing the burden at least for a couple of days to allow me to be here, so thank you to her. I want to begin by talking a little bit about the organization of my presentation. What im going to do is focus life inn ashes richmond and lynchburg, but i want to begin with his death in 1993 and then transition and talk a little bit about africanamerican athletes, especially in the 20th century, and then spend the bulk of my time talking about richmond and lynchburg and hopefully leave ample time in the end for any questions you may have, and i am willing to answer any questions life,any aspect of ashes whether it is civil rights or antiapartheid action or his you as an author, whatever would like to talk about, as well. So lets begin sort of at the end. Lets look at ashes viewing,s funeral, because i think we can learn about their life by looking at the ways in which they are remembered, especially at the funeral. At Virginia State flag flew half staff in 1993 on the waters of douglas wilder, the states first africanamerican governor. Hours before sunset on a cold white andwinter day, black, rich and poor, men and women, liberals and conservatives all lined the streets in downtown richmond to pay their respects to arthur ashe, a man they were membered as an international activist, a row champion tennis player, a humanitarian, a teacher, a writer, a husband, and a father. And who attended the wake the Funeral Services had no interest in sports, and many had never played tennis or watched tennis. One richmond woman braved the apartheid, the someone who had risked his own reputation to help others. Future South African president Nelson Mandela agreed. Following his own release from prison after almost 30 years intact of it he, a reporter asked who in the United States do you host most want to see question mark do you want to meet . Unequivocal was his reply. Another standing in line described arthur ashe as a role model for lack youth. He told the Richmond Times dispatch that he taught me was ok to aspire, ok to be articulate. I never had an older brother. Instead, i had a hero. Was compared to John F Kennedy and Martin Luther king, and they paid their respects to arthur ashe last night that represented a melding of ethnic groups that demonstrated the s message,ty of ashe wrote to the local press. Mourners of 5000 passed by his coffin, which had a display. Was dressed in blue with a tropical thai and appeared peaceful and at rest. Visitors left behind all kinds. F things for ashe one left behind an old tennis ball, another and inscribed and son flag, bouquets, long, arthur. The struggle continues. One writer for the Richmond Times dispatch wrote that though he was black and i was white, he was a worldclass celebrity, and i was just a guy from the local paper, but there were no gaps or barriers to separate us. Was how weeling that dealt with anyone who was fortunate enough to know him. He was right. The lines were there six hours before the funeral, dotting the sidewalks like the andsanthemums and pansies geraniums, and they sat on flatbeds and stood on the crowded roads. They carried cameras and babies and puppies, and they took annual leave from state jobs or simply shut down their businesses. Joinedtennis players charles robb, bill bradley, the reverend Jesse Jackson and others. We shall songs like overcome, the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Along with songs like when the saints go marching in. Funeral wereat the powerful. Arthur ashe was just plain better than most of us, said jenkins. Most athletes, jackson explained, limit themselves to achievements within their lives, but arthur found greatness beyond. Governor wilder noted how ashe used every fiber of his strength. When the service concluded, the eight pallbearers guided ashes casket to the woodlawn cemetery, where he would rest for eternity in a plot aside his mother matti e. A look at the you funeral of arthur ashe, and you really get a sense of what he meant to people, not just as an athlete, not just a richmond athlete, but someone who fought for civil rights causes throughout his life, someone who as a military and stood up or reform in other areas throughout his life. Was not the only significant athlete of the 20th century. Sthink you really and ashe legacy, i think it is important to look back, so that is what i want to do just for a second here, kind of look at ways in which historians tend to categorize and classify athletes. Historians and journalists have categorized black athletes of the 20th century in really one of two ways. On the one side, you have what the historians call lewis,dationists, joe athletes who played hard, broke records, and achieved celebrity stardom but stayed mostly silent on the issues of race. The 1940s and later in his career, but especially the 1930s, he was mostly silent on the issue of race. These men and women can to be two to the field and serving as positive role models for blacks and whites, so, in other words, may chose to pioneer through their performance. It was written at the different between me and Jackie Robinson is that he thrived on his role as a negro battling for a holiday, whereas i shy away from it. That man read me correctly. Radicalther side, militants, people like bill russell, top left, of course muhammad ali on the bottom right, and these are athletes who use their celebrity as a platform for social and political activism, and nobody personifies this category better than muhammad ali, a superbly thented locks are, one of greatest boxers of the 20th century, who changed his name just before winning the heavyweight championship in 1964. Ali inspired workingclass African Americans by joining the nation of islam, with black politics and culture, and by refusing to fight in the vietnam war. The part of what i argue in book as this kind of either or approach to classifying black athletes, either, this radicals, itist or does not take into account perhaps the vast majority and how they respond to the Civil Rights Movement, the black power movement, and responding in more moderate ways, and what i suggest in the book is that ashe responded in very nuanced and moderate ways to the various movements, says sort of who was arthur ashe . I think we know who arthur ashe was for the most part. Let me point out some of his main achievements. Ais is a picture of ashe little bit younger than we are accustomed to seeing him. Very, very thin in his early days. One of the Top International tennis players between 1966 and 1975. He was the winner of three grand slam events, the u. S. Open in 1968, just really an open in 1970, and, of course, wimbledon in 1975, where he defeated Jimmy Connors in a huge upset. As a player and also as a captain in the 1980s, he led the u. S. Davis cup team to multiple titles, and, of course, he won many other titles along the way. One writer, the very famous jim murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that anyone who would not noth arthur ashe play would watch rembrandt paint. No one called him an artist, but he was. Off the court, it focuses, my book, war off the court. The arena of international politics, the black Freedom Movement. Historians use the term black Freedom Movement to kind of complete the variety of movements in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Civil Rights Movement, the black power movement, the black Consciousness Movement in south really struggled at times and was more successful at other times of negotiating those poles of the movement, those that included assimilation into White Society on the other hand and black nationalism on the other. Fiercely independent and protective of his image, he walked that thin line throughout his career between can the kids and liberals, reactionaries and black power, the sports establishment and the black cause, and what i found consistently in doing my research is that he was criticized from both ends of the political spectrum with frequency. Critics would either accuse them of either doing too much for the movement or not enough for the movement. In 1992, when sports named him i want to emphasize that his approach to activism really evolved over his life. He was never static in his views. It was located somewhere between moderate and militant integration. He relied on integration. Direct engagement with white leaders in the United States and south africa and open dialogue with his opponents and direct action that was likely to succeed. Like most ordinary adoptedamericans, ashe tenants of the Civil Rights Movement for his own form of activism, and his career really spanned the civil rights era. And embracingo practiceowerment, ashe a strategy of gradualism and nonviolence, and he grew with the black Freedom Movement. So what i want to do now is that sck here and talk about ashe journey. It began right here in richmond on richmonds north side. He was born in 1943 in the middle of the second world war. In african up american in richmond presented a series of racial challenges, just like it did throughout many, many cities, north and south in the 1940s and 1950s. It have been a number of historians who have looked at cities like richmond, looked at cities in the south, and what they have argued is that places upe richmond really made communities that were connected to the wealthier white neighborhoods really only by the city limits. They were essentially separate cities, and although some of these historians and knowledge greater fluidity in richmond than in other cities like savannah or memphis, they never really reached out to middleclass blacks, leaving it a separate city, isolated by race angiography. Ashe, a young arthur Racial Discrimination was sort of part of every day life. He said, quote, i never thought much about it. Life was that way. There were certain theaters i could not go to, certain soda fountains and playgrounds that were not for me. You did not talk about it, anymore than you could not go to a certain movie because you did not know. Or you could not go to a muslim mosque. Of course, there was a good bit of racial unrest in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in a campaign to integrate public transportation, and they do talk about what they remember. One of which occurred on a city bus in the late 1940s or early experiencede ashe firsthand the reality of segregated seating. Attie wouldmother m sometimes board the bus at the unofficial line of segregation theexit to visit grandmother, and getting on the bus in richmond just like most towns in the south was an instant reminder of his plays. He says, quote, i could clearly remember the white line on the floor of the bus. It was just to the rear of the door, and i just understood i was required to stand behind it. I dont member discussing it. It was just understood. Although despite his familiarity with the white line, he did challenge it. Was recorded in a taperecorded interview how we stood up for his mother want him on the bus in the late 1940s. After boarding the bus and realizing there were no Seats Available in the front or the back, ashe, in a characteristically polite arthur ashe fashion, as a white man to mother,his seat for his and he could have been abused for the request and instead said if you have the nerve to ask me to get up and give your mother my seat, i will give her my seat. Ashes willingness to challenge the status well, he was very good at sizing up his opponent, seeing who would be best to challenge and who would be best not to challenge, part of his strategy and caution, and i eventualgets a lot of sort of philosophy and activism, i think, in some ways, im skipping ahead of it, coming from his father. I will talk a little bit about his relationship with his father, arthur ashe senior here. Son,e arthur ashe seniors they spent many of their days in brookfield park, arthur ashe senior had to work. Was a jack of all trades. He would remove weeds from gardens, clean houses, collect , kind offamilies whatever needed to be done to make ends meet. He attended Public Schools in Mecklenburg County through the eighth grade, often taking classes at night so he could work during the day. At 16 coming accepted a job as a Maintenance Man for the Richmond Railroad and eventually took a job for the city. Remain idle,one to never want to be accepting of a single job. He supplemented his income by mowing lawns, filling swimming ands, catering events, chauffeuring prominent people around town, and this is where we get to the second antidote that i want toe discuss. In a city known for racial senior affronted a lot of white men, some will help to finance the tennis career later on. He was a driver for a jewish owner of a Department Store in downtown richmond. On one occasion, he drove him to the edge of the city to purchase a piece of land. The depression had nearly bankrupted this seller, but despite the desperate need to sell his property, he was reluctant to sell his land to a jew. Man,hould have heard the arthur ashe senior said, he called mr. Fowler im her all sorts of things. After the ranting and raving, they closed the deal. Washe drive home, ashe perplexed by this and asked, how could you tolerate all of those insults without changing your disposition, and he said, i came out here to buy that land, and the end result is i owned the land. They can curse me out as much as he likes. Learned an important lesson. He said no matter what people think you are how much they try to make you feel inferior, you must always keep that angle in mind, and later on the tennis court, that strategy translated nicely for ashe, ignoring racial slurs from spectators or bad calls from linesman. He was focused on one thing, winning the match. I want to talk about the relationship between ashe and his father, particularly the way his father protected him from some of the dangers that some of the young growing up in jim crow america had to experience. Ashe senior knew that the south could be a dangerous place for black youth, and the rest a 14yearold africanamerican from chicago that with kidnapped from his uncles home, killed, lynched, thrown in the river with a called wheel wrapped around his neck, and this comes up repeatedly for historians in this was a stark reminder of what would happen to you if you looked at somebody be wrong way or said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Said, quote, my father tried to keep us out of harms way, and the possibility of harm was real. We all knew what happened to emmett till, and cast a shadow over my youth, and across america. So in part to avoid what till, he was stern, his methods bordering on overprotective. s first day at grammar school, ashe senior walked from the park with about a 10 minute track, and his father commanded that he return home exactly 10 minutes after dismissal, not a second later. Senior was an oldfashioned disciplinarian, a man who would not tolerate insubordination from his son. His view of the world in terms of child rearing left very little room for debate. On the very few occasions whena when ashe returned late or fail to do a chore, he was to get his leather belt. He would joke that only grade a lather would be used for my hide. He gave an interview where he revealed well into his 20s and 30s that he honestly believed that, quote, if i got out of line, my father would kick my. He was arrested prior to his death, and he talks in both not hingeabout it did on how mad his father would be at him, and he still thought about it. Senior of us miss commandments, and that is what he called them, commandments. No hanging around. If you do not have to be somewhere, you should be home, and ashe had plenty to do at home, including making his bed, cleaning the room, feeding the dogs, chopping wood for the fireplace, and once he finished those, he would devote his time to his schoolwork, and his father insisted that he read, that he do his work well, that he become really the best reader in school, and if you knew he wouldabout ashe, read extensively and graciously throughout his life, not just books that you would find in but all sorts of s father saidshe the following. I tried to impress upon arthur a saying that a woman told me, he told a richmond reporter in 1968. She said a seeing eye, a listening ear, a silent tong, and a faithful heart, time, and patients. You could see how that manifested later in ashes career. While he is under the watchful