Editor Craig Belcher (right) speaking with Lou Einwick (Photo by Justin Vaughan)
Last September, the magazine’s newest editor, Craig Belcher, suggested a story on Brook Field Park to set the story straight on where Arthur Ashe Jr. really learned to play tennis.
This August, Craig presented another idea: an entire magazine devoted to Ashe.
Fifty years ago this month, Arthur Ashe was ranked the No. 1 tennis player in the world.
In September 1968, he was the first African-American man to win the U.S. Open — in the first year that professionals and amateurs like Ashe played together.
In May of that same year, Ashe also played at Byrd Park for the first time. The U.S. Davis Cup team beat the Caribbean/West Indies team — on the same tennis courts that hosted youth tournaments that Ashe so wanted to compete in since he was 8 but was denied because of his race.
In this, Richmond magazine’s first commemorative issue, the story of Richmond is told through Ashe — our community’s shameful past and, through the eyes of those still working for equity, what’s needed for the city now. We’ve included that story about Brook Field, essays on Ashe’s influence worldwide, and behind-the-scenes stories and photos.
We’ve tried to bring you fresh perspectives from family, friends, residents and writers. A huge thank you to Lou Einwick for putting us in touch with a number of Ashe’s acquaintances.
A repeated theme is Ashe’s levelheadedness, his refusal to show anger. One family friend, educator Etna Carr, says that Ashe once told her graduating students that the first thing the gods do when they want to defeat you is make you angry, but you can’t listen to them. To him, hyper-emotionalism was an enemy of social progress, as Raymond Arsenault wrote in his new Ashe biography. Ashe believed in “pragmatic realism” to solve issues.
“In this current political climate, some people could stand to be reminded of our common humanity,” Craig said as we were planning this issue.
We could think of no one more fitting to remind us of that common humanity than Arthur Ashe.
