Citizen Ashe, by award-winning director Sam Pollard and Rex Miller, chronicles the life of tennis great and Virginia native Arthur Ashe, a trailblazing figure on the court and activist off.
Ashe was the first Black man to win a singles championship at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open. He was also the first Black man named to a U.S. Davis Cup team. But it was a heart attack at age 36 and subsequent bypass surgery that in many ways defined Ashe’s career.
Over the nine years following his first cardiac episode, Ashe embarked on a mission to advocate for heart health. But health issues continued to plague him. In 1988, Ashe was hospitalized yet again. Tests revealed he was HIV positive. Doctors said he likely contracted the disease from a blood transfusion received during his 1979 quadruple bypass.
As an activist, Ashe took on not only heart health and AIDS awareness but racial justice. He visited South Africa as part of a delegation promoting racial integration, and later, in 1985, was arrested for protesting during an anti-apartheid rally. Ashe protested mistreatment of Haitian refugees in 1992 and was again arrested for speaking out.
Born and raised in Richmond, Ashe was honored with a statue along the city’s Monument Avenue in 1996. Because of its location among Richmond’s many confederate memorials, the bronze sculpture showing Ashe holding a book and tennis racket and surrounded by children has become a touchpoint in the ongoing conversation about antiquity and historical injustice in modern American life.
Citizen Ashe is narrated by Ashe and features Johnnie Ashe, Stephanie Cookie Carson, and Donald Dell. The film attempts to put Ashe’s life into sociological context, examining the racial issues surrounding the predominantly white sport of tennis.
Citizen Ashe
Violet Crown Cinema
October 30