March 29, 2024

When The New York Times Sports Columnist Bill Rhoden, one of the co-hosts for the evening, spoke with What's The 411 correspondent, Andrew Rosario, at the Arthur Ashe Sports Ball 2012, an event to benefit the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, he too, went below the surface.

Rhoden dug deep, as he remembered tennis great and humanitarian, Arthur Ashe.

Rhoden views Arthur Ashe as a pioneer in the world of tennis much like Jackie Robinson was a trailblazer in baseball and how their greatness impacted society beyond sports.

"Coming into a sport in a context, where, like, Jackie Robinson, those kinds of people, where you know that it's not just about tennis or baseball and it's not just about you, that you do represent a lot of people," stated Bill Rhoden. "And I think that Arthur carried that well and he expected other people, other tennis players, other Black athletes to carry themselves that same way too. So, I think clearly, he (Arthur Ashe) was a product of his time, of the South, of the sport, of the politics and sociology of the sport, and he embraced it."

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