Arthur Ashe

1943–1993 · American tennis champion, author and activist

Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1943 and became the only Black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. Off the court he was an organiser and an arguer — captain of the US Davis Cup team from 1981 to 1985, arrested outside the South African embassy in Washington in January 1985 at an anti-apartheid rally, and, after announcing in April 1992 that a blood transfusion had left him HIV-positive, one of the most prominent AIDS campaigners in the country. He wrote Days of Grace with Arnold Rampersad in his last months, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death on 6 February 1993; that June he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Traced to source

3 quotes we’ve traced to Arthur Ashe

“in the zone”

Verified

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost”

Verified

“We must reach out our hand in friendship both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy”

Verified

Not actually Arthur Ashe

Often misattributed to Arthur Ashe

Famous lines widely pinned on Arthur Ashe that we’ve traced to someone else.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can”

actually Squire Bill Widener

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