Sep 14, 2026
Author Spotlight: Arthur Ashe — The Champion Who Taught the World That True Heroism Is Service
A deep dive on Arthur Ashe — the Richmond-born tennis champion who grew up on a blacks-only playground in the segregated South, was turned away from his hometown's courts because of his color, and became the first Black man to win the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon men's singles titles; the composed, quietly radical activist who co-founded the ATP, fought apartheid for two decades, and was arrested outside the South African embassy; his defining reflections on preparation, self-confidence, service, and heroism; and the legacy of the world No. 1 who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, announced it on his own terms, and spent his final year teaching the world how to face death with grace — remembered every September when the US Open is played in the stadium that bears his name.