Arthur Ashe: The First African-American Man

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can” (Arthur Ashe). This is a quote by the revolutionary Arthur Ashe. He was an inspirational teacher, activist, author, spokesperson, and a tennis hall-of-famer who changed the world (“Arthur Ashe Biography,” 2016). Arthur Ashe is the first African American man to thrive at the top of the tennis world, overcame the challenges of racism, discrimination, and health issues, and lit up the world by opening the door for other African Americans (“Arthur Ashe,” 1998).

Arthur Ashe, on and off the tennis court, did what no other man had achieved before. He was the first African-American man to become the number one ranked tennis player in the world. Ashe was also the first African-American

Tennis was a reasonable choice of sport for Ashe himself because he was too light for football and not fast enough for track, but not a logical decision because Ashe was African Americans (“Arthur Ashe,” 1998). African Americans were discriminated heavily in Ashe’s time and Africans American professional tennis players were nonexistent (“Arthur Ashe,” 1998). But Ashe, drawing encouragement from success of African American baseball player Jackie Robinson, persisted to eventually become one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In addition to using the habit of mind “persisting” to overcome racism and discrimination, Ashe also used the habit of mind “thinking flexibly” to conquer his health issues that forced him to retire from professional tennis. Further after his life as a tennis player, he still contributed in some way to the world (“Arthur Ashe Biography,” 2016). Ashe spoke out against racism and discrimination, having experienced it himself. He even founded and became the leading spokesperson for AIDS by founding the Arthur Ashe Foundation for Defeat of AIDS to help people with AIDS and to raise awareness about the life-endangering disease (Kinyatti, 2002). Arthur Ashe, as well as having many significant achievements and overcoming racism, discrimination, and health issues, lit up the world by opening the door for

Arthur Ashe was the first African American to flourish at the summit of the tennis rankings, conquered the challenges racism, discrimination, and health issues, and lit up the world by giving more opportunities to other African