Today, I had an English assignment that was about listening, and I was listening to a radio program about Arthur Ashe.
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) was an African-American tennis player who was very tenacious, brave and honest. He was, besides a tennis player, a social activist who fought racism, encouraged people, even his opponents, to do their best, helped poor childed and taught people about the two diseases that ended with his life: hear disease and AIDS.
He was born in Virginia, at the time when we was born, American government separated people according to their race (Black people attended different schools and churchs, for instances). He was poor, and his father work all daylong, and his mother died when he was six.
At the age of seven, his father became in charge of the public play space, so they moved there. There, he started to practice tennis and he became very avid, and won a local championship. Later, UCLA offered him a scholarship if he joined the tennis team. He did and he led the team to the victory.
Later, he won the United States, Australia and France Open and a championship in England. Then, he was invited to the South Africa Open. In those years, South Africa was known for being a very racist country, and the government wanted to clean their image to play in the Olympics. Ashe decided to help South Africa, but he played in racially-mixed groups, said and did whatever he pleased. Actually, he became a close friend of Nelson Mandela, who is very known for fighting racism in Africa and going to jail unfairly.
He created foundations to help poor children and taught them to play tennis and golf.
When he discovered he had heart disease, he had to stop playing. But he never stopped; he taught people about this disease, how to prevent it, how to cope with it.
He needed a heart transplant, and he received a new heart, but the blood he received was infected by AIDS and he got infected.
But this encouraged him the most and did not become a burden for him. He also thought the community about AIDS and how to prevent it.
He died in 1993, in the week of his last speech.
