By the age of 11, Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) was one of Virginia’s most talented Black tennis players. He became the first African American to play for the U.S. Davis Cup team in 1963, and two years later won the NCAA singles championship. In 1968, Ashe rose to a number one national ranking. Turning professional in 1969, he soon became one of the world’s most successful tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he served four years as the US Davis Cup captain and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

In this revelatory biography, Raymond Arsenault chronicles Ashe’s rise to stardom on the court. But much of the book explores his off-court career as a human rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman, and celebrity. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality, and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was forced to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which left him HIV-positive. After devoting the last ten months of his life to AIDS activism, Ashe died at the age of forty-nine, leaving an inspiring legacy of dignity, integrity, and active citizenship. Today, his name graces the largest tennis venue in the world, Arthur Ashe Stadium at the National Tennis Center in New York.

Based on prodigious research, including more than one hundred interviews, Arthur Ashe: A Life puts Ashe in the context of both his time and the long struggle of African-American athletes seeking equal opportunity and respect, and “will serve as the standard work on Ashe for some time” (Library Journal review).

About the Author

Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. One of the nation’s leading civil rights historians, he is the author of several acclaimed and prize-winning books, including Freedom Riders and The Sound of Freedom.