Arthur Ashe's widow ways she is not in agreement with husband's statue being erected amid Civil War heroes

Jet, Jan 22, 1996

Several months after the Richmond, VA, Planning Commission gave preliminary approval for a statue of native son Arthur Ashe to be erected on a city street once reserved for Civil War heroes, Ashe's widow says she is "not in agreement with the decision."

In a letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe wrote: "No, I I am not in agreement with the decision to place the ,Arthur Ashe monument, on Monument Avenue. My reasons are not politically driven; nor are they artistically or racially motivated. I have always felt that in all this controversy, the spirit that Arthur gave to Richmond has been overlooked."

Mrs. Ashe, who previously refused to comment on the controversy surrounding where her husband's statue should be erected, said she is "afraid that a statue of Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue honors Richmond, Virginia, more than it does its son, his legacy, and his life's work."

According to Mrs. Ashe, her husband's dream was to have an African-American Sports Hall of Fame erected in his hometown. "He saw it as his life's work to leave behind a lasting memorial to all African-American athletes," wrote Mrs. Ashe. "That it would be in Richmond, where he was born and raised, left him even more proud."

In 1992, one year before his death from AIDS, Ashe, who contracted the disease through a blood transfusion during heart surgery, successfully approached city officials about his dream to house the Hall of Fame in Richmond. However, after Ashe's death, the idea was shelved and city officials turned their attention to erecting a statue to honor the late tennis great.

But, with Mrs. Ashe's concerns being raised, the city's planning commission has deferred any final action on the Ashe monument for two months. After that time, a group called Citizens for Excellence in Public Art will present a written plan to hold an international competition to select an artist to create a statue of Ashe.

The statue, created by sculptor Paul DiPasquale--and reportedly approved by Ashe, his wife, and other family members--has been criticized as being awkward, undignified and stiff.

Mrs. Ashe said she is distressed that DiPasquale's work is being criticized and that had her husband known that the statue would be placed somewhere other than in front of a Hall of Fame he would have posed differently. "Or, it is just as likely, I believe, that he would not have even wanted a statue created."

As such, Mrs. Ashe suggested that city officials return to her husband's original dream--to build a Hall of Fame museum.

"It is not too late for that," wrote Mrs. Ashe in the newspaper. "As 1996 begins, my wish for the new year is that there can be a national effort to build a Sports Hall of Fame in Richmond that is a place of honor for all the great people Arthur saluted in (the book) A Hard Road to Glory. Arthur returned to his roots. Let his legacy grow, in your soil. Water it, nurture it, and it will be the shining star that Arthur was for all of us."