Arthur Ashe was the first African-American male tennis player to be ranked number one in the world. As a youth, Ashe displayed intelligence, the willingness to work hard, and a determination to win—attributes that led him to become one of the top junior players in the nation. After becoming a top-ranked college player, he won the U.S. Open. In 1975 Ashe won both the Wimbledon and World Championship Tennis men's singles titles.

Ashe's interests extended beyond tennis. He worked to fight prejudice, protested apartheid in South Africa and discrimination in the United States, and involved himself in tennis clinics and educational opportunities for young people. He also wrote a number of books and many articles for newspapers and magazines. Among the books he authored is A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete—a three-volume text that remains the only thorough examination of early black athletes in the United States and Canada.

Following an early heart attack in 1979, Ashe underwent quadruple bypass surgery. More than ten years later, Ashe announced to the world that he suffered from AIDS. Doctors had discovered that he had contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from a blood transfusion Ashe received after the open-heart surgery. Ashe tirelessly fought the disease and continued to work for the causes he felt strongly about. He died in 1993.

In 1996, a dedication ceremony was held in Ashe's hometown of Richmond, Virginia. A twelve-foot bronze statue of Ashe was unveiled on Monument Avenue to honor him. The following year, a huge crowd in Flushing Meadows, New York, paid tribute to Ashe at the dedication of the new state-of-the-art Arthur Ashe Stadium.