Ashe, << ash, >> Arthur (1943-1993), a tennis player, became the first African American to win the United States men’s national singles championship. He won the title in 1968. In that same year, he played on the winning U.S. Davis Cup team (see Davis Cup ). In 1975, Ashe became the first Black man to win the Wimbledon singles championship in England. Ashe retired from competition in 1980.
Ashe was born on July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. His full name was Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. In 1966, while a student at the University of California at Los Angeles, he won the National Collegiate Athletic Association singles and doubles championships. Ashe wrote a history of Black athletes in the United States called A Hard Road to Glory (1987). Ashe died from pneumonia brought on by AIDS on Feb. 6, 1993. He probably contracted the virus from a blood transfusion. Ashe’s memoir, Days of Grace, was published in 1993, after his death.
