that s it. new ball. shots are 2-2. got by him. comes back with it! you try to put your entire being mentally and physically on automatic pilot while you re playing tennis. everything is concentrated on the razor s edge and you forget the score. you forget where you are. you forget what your name is. i feel like my body s floating within myself. the game of tennis is a symphony in white. players in white suits hitting a white ball back and fort. in all white country clubs but a new, young player has come along and he is one of the greatest we have ever produced and he is not white. i sense confusion in what an athlete should be, especially an african american context. does still persist in the world about black athletes because we tend to do disproportionately well in athletes. i like to fight the myth. there are lots of us who can think as well as run, jump, hit tennis balls, dunk basketballs. and the challenge now is to convince young black athletes that the
that s it. [ applause ] 2-2. comes back with it! you try to put your entire being mentally and physically on automatic pilot while you re playing tennis. everything is concentrated on the razor s edge and you forget the score. you forget where you are. you forget what your name is. i feel like my body s floating within myself. the game of tennis is a symphony in white. players in white suits hitting a white ball back and forth between white baselines in all-white country clubs. but a new young player has come along and he is one of the greatest we have ever produced, and he is not white. i sense confusion in what an athlete should be, especially in an african american context. there does still persist in the world myths about black athletes because we tend to do disproportionately well in athletics. some people think we are all brawn and no brains. and i like to fight the myth. there are lots of us who can think as well as run, jump, hit tennis balls, dunk basketb
it s inevitable that you will be referred to as the first negro this and the first negro that. are there still country clubs in this country where you wouldn t be welcome? oh, sure. yes. really? yes. there are some tournaments i can t play in alabama or louisiana. if they don t want me it s okay with me. i majored in business at ucla. that was a very busy time in my classes and also practicing with the team. but when black students from black colleges in the south were getting their heads kicked in at the sit-ins, i didn t like myself for not speaking out more. i was more single focused about tennis and i i felt very guilty about doing that. arthur was named to the davis cup team.
Being a black southerner it was taboo especially when you have been taught and the ancestors during and after slavery were taught that the white woman is untouchable and just not to be defiled and not to have anything to do with lesser beings so you have a natural curiosity about white women. every southern black man does. but in california nobody bats an eye about interracial dating. a period of exploration for me. it was liberating. his thought patterns for his life were not relegated to what he learned in richmond. at ucla he started to become a citizen of the world that he became. you will be referred to as the first negro this and that.