Amid the tawdry spectacle of Virginia statewide officeholders stumbling through racial indiscretions, the city of Richmond this week provided a much-needed grace note. After decades of punting away the idea, the Richmond City Council voted Feb. 11 to rename a majestic street, known simply as the Boulevard, for tennis champion and Richmond native Arthur Ashe.
For anyone who saw in real time the admirable way Ashe carried himself, not to mention the breathtaking manner he alternately floated and slashed his way across tennis courts, the council’s decision comes as a signally appropriate recognition of merit and character.
Much has been made, and deservedly so, about Ashe’s dignified, thoughtful, and constructive activism on behalf of better treatment for black people worldwide. Even for those who did not share all of his liberal politics, he almost invariably got the tone and substance on racial issues pitch-perfect.
For tennis fans, to watch him play was to revel in athletic artistry. In the 1970s, his major foil was the brash young Jimmy Connors. One could even usually root for Connors against other opponents if for no other reason than Connors’ all-guts style, yet still rejoice when Ashe made mincemeat of him in their celebrated 1975 Wimbledon championship match. Against Connors’ bludgeoning style, Ashe trumped him with intelligence and all-court craftsmanship. Even as lopsided (and thus not conventionally exciting) as the match was, it was tremendous fun to watch.
The larger significance of Ashe’s class against Connors’ pension for gracelessness, though, lay in the feud between them about the Davis Cup — a team competition in which players represent not themselves but their nation.
Connors, with the mien of a middle-America scrapper of the sort usually seen as eager to wave the flag, nonetheless refused for years to play the Davis Cup. He cited scheduling conflicts and other excuses. But the word was that he most resented being asked to play for national pride rather than cold cash.
Ashe, who grew up suffering through Jim Crow discrimination, was the Davis Cup captain who insisted that patriotism should demand participation by the nation’s best players. The man who best knew his country’s biggest flaw was the one proudest to wave its colors. And Ashe was right.
Richmond was wise to honor its native son this week. Athletic champion, reformer, leader, patriot: Ashe definitely merits a hometown boulevard bearing his name.
