🖤✊🏿🎾#ArtIsAWeapon #AthleteActivists #ArthurAshe, @usopen 1974, 📷 by Barton Silverman. Reposted from @nytimes Long before Colin Kaepernick [@kaepernick7] took a knee or @MBA players led game walkouts, there was Arthur Ashe. In 1968, Ashe was the first Black male athlete to win a singles title at the US Open, and he used his platform to speak out against segregation and racial inequality. Ashe believed he and other athletes should use their visibility to inspire others, fully aware that they had the power to have an impact on culture and peoples’ attitudes about race. “A few days after his win, he became the first athlete to appear on CBS’s public affairs program ‘Face the Nation,’” Maurice Berger wrote in The Times in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of Ashe’s historic win. “Despite his momentous victory, he spoke as an activist, weighing in on subjects as diverse as civil rights legislation, the Black Power movement and the role of the African-American athlete in the civil rights struggle.” Ashe’s TV appearance was applauded by many. But he, too, was sometimes mistaken for a waiter or busboy while participating in tournaments dominated by White players. And while he did not think every athlete had to thrust themselves into a position of leadership, he said it was a mistake not to speak out against segregationist policies. Ashe, who died in 1993, worked to expand educational and employment opportunities among disadvantaged youth and was a vocal critic of apartheid in South Africa. At the US Open this year, Black athletes continue to show support for racial equality. Naomi Osaka [@naomiosaka] has worn face masks that honor the victims of police brutality. Sloane Stephens [@sloanestephens] wore a mask in support of Black Lives Matter. The photo by Barton Silverman for The Times was taken in 1974 during a match against Guillermo Vilas at the US Open in Forest Hills, New York. #USOpen #USOpen2020 #BlackTennisPlayers #SocialJustice #naomiosaka #sloanestephens #BlackLivesMatter #BreonnaTaylor #RamarleyGraham #BlackAndWhitePhotos #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4RBNUg7MS/?igshid=ymtcnyewjtmq