Ultimately, Ash needed to do things his way, and he ended up using his position as a world-class athlete to continue campaigning for several causes. At the height of his career, he faced off against South Africa’s long-standing apartheid regime and traveled to the South African Championships in 1973 under an agreement to unify the competitions. Avoiding world media attention, he continued to fund a tennis center for black South Africans in Soweto.
Ash was similarly passionate about inclusive participation in tennis around the world. As co-founder of the National Junior Tennis League in 1969, his goal was to make tennis accessible to children of all backgrounds, not just those with country club memberships. And though he was initially hesitant to participate, Ashe eventually became one of the most powerful voices in America’s struggle for justice and equality. in the documentary citizen ashDr. Harry Edwards, a civil rights leader and a central figure in the Black Power protests at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, said of the tennis star that “gentlemanship, kindness, intelligence, calmness should be ignored.” “If he does, his rhetoric will become more belligerent.” my. “
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Ash joined the American Heart Association board of directors after suffering multiple heart attacks. And after he revealed his AIDS diagnosis, it was no surprise that a new campaign was launched. In addition to appearing in the media to debunk myths about the disease, he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation to End AIDS. above world aids day In December 1992, he addressed the World Health Organization.
Ash died of AIDS-related pneumonia in February 1993, two years before a new class of antiretroviral drugs became available that could help people infected with the virus live longer, healthier lives. He told Redgrave in 1992: “I’m not afraid of dying. There’s always hope. And I have to live my life as if there is, or will be, hope. Hope is a selfish hope. No. For me, the hope is that there probably won’t be a cure for AIDS in time for me, but it definitely will for others.”
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