Grand Slam: history of blacks in tennis.
Black Enterprise › Vol. 25 Nbr. 2, September 1994
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Summary
Special Section: 1994 Black Enterprise/Pepsi-Cola Golf and Tennis Challenge
African American participation in tennis can be traced to the 19th century. The sport advanced in black social clubs, such as the Chicago Prairie Tennis Club that was formed in 1912. In the mid-20th century, blacks emerged as major competitors, including tennis stars Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.See the full content of this document
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Grand Slam: history of blacks in tennis.
Before Arthur Ashe passed away, People magazine sent a reporter to his office to do a story about how the former tennis star was coping with AIDs. As she was leaving, the reporter, a white woman, sympathetically supposed that Ashe's disease was surely the heaviest burden he'd ever had to bear.
"No it isn't," Ashe, recalling the incident in his memoir, Day of Grace, corrected her. With his usual candor, Ashe surprised the woman: "Race has always been my biggest burden," he told her. "Even now it continues to feel like an extra weight tied around me." Coming from such a heroically succes...See the full content of this document
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