Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Citizen Ashe’ on HBO Max, a Documentary Tour of The Tennis Legend’s Life and Journey to Activism

Arthur Ashe’s name is practically synonymous with tennis; indeed, the US Open is held each year in a stadium that bears his name. Ashe gained great renown and respect for his boundary-shattering accomplishments on the court and his civic activism off it, but neither were a straight line to success. In Citizen Ashe, a 2021 documentary landing on HBO Max this week, we get a closer look at the man behind the mythos.

CITIZEN ASHE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Today, Arthur Ashe is remembered as much for his social activism as he is for his historic accomplishments as the first Black male champion; he campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, and started the Arthur Ashe Foundation to combat HIV/AIDS after contracting the disease through a blood transfusion. His untimely death from AIDS in 1993 served to cement his legend as a groundbreaking figure in American sports history. In his time, though, Ashe was often viewed with suspicion by fellow Black athletes and activists; his journey to becoming the person he is remembered as was a complicated one, one that’s laid out in careful detail in Citizen Ashe, a 2021 documentary by filmmakers Rex Miller and Sam Pollard. Contemporary interviews with key figures from Ashe’s life are interwoven with archival interviews and footage from his storied career in building a compelling narrative.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The lily-white world of tennis is challenged by an exceptional Black athlete; there’s an obvious comparison to be drawn here to last year’s King Richard, but also to 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic.

Performance Worth Watching: Archival footage of Ashe himself from interviews during his life plays a large part in the film, but contemporary commentary provided by his younger brother, Johnnie Ashe, helps give a fresh voice to the stories of his early upbringing, and activist Harry Edwards explains his journey toward social justice efforts.

Memorable Dialogue: “The game of tennis is a symphony in white,” a contemporaneous announcer narrates. “Players in white suits hitting a white ball back and forth between white lines in all white country clubs. But a new young player has come along, and he is one of the greatest we have ever produced, and he is not white.” Laying it on a little thick, buddy, but spot the lie, I guess.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Long before Arthur Ashe’s name would be emblazoned on America’s most important tennis stadium, he lived on the tennis court. Quite literally, in fact–Ashe’s journey to tennis greatness began on the courts at a playground in Richmond, Virginia where his father was caretaker and his family lived on the grounds. With the opportunity to take up any sport, Ashe chose tennis, telling his brother that he intended to become the “Jackie Robinson” of the sport. His journey was sped along when he caught the eye of Robert Walter Johnson, a prominent physician who had founded the Junior Development Program, a training program for young Black tennis players that had given fellow star Althea Gibson her start. Ashe quickly excelled, becoming the first African American to win the National Junior Indoor tennis title and earning a tennis scholarship to UCLA. He rose to national prominence, often standing out as the only black competitor in otherwise all-white competitions.

This rise to prominence drew the eye of prominent activists, including Harry Edwards, founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and mastermind behind boycotts and protests including the famous “Black Power” salute offered by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. When Edwards attempted to recruit Ashe, Edwards recalls, Ashe told him, “Harry, I understand what you’re doing, but that’s not my way.”

“I said to myself, you know what? After all that, this guy must be an Uncle Tom”, Edwards recounts.

Fellow Black tennis player Art Carrington concurs, “In the sixties, it was Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, and they were really two extremes. One very vocal, and one not very vocal. One that identified in the Black way, and one that could enter these environments that were the finest clubs and facilities of white America.” It’s even recalled that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would refer to Ashe as “Arthur Ass”.

It’s all a far cry from the way Arthur Ashe is remembered today, and Citizen Ashe does an admirable job contextualizing Ashe’s cautious and fraught journey from athlete to activist. His father had hammered into his sons a careful discipline, one meant to protect his sons in a dangerous time to be a Black man growing up in the South; Ashe reflects on the brutal murder of Emmett Till as a formative moment in his life. While he was scoffed at by many figures in the Black activist community early in his career, he would steadily move towards using his respected position as a soapbox for activism, albeit in a more guarded manner than many of his contemporaries.

“After a while, I came to respect his disposition,” Edwards recalls. “Arthur was the first person to really push me to understand that Black orthodoxy is not an acceptable substitute for institutionalized white racism. That it has to be about people having the freedom to make their own decisions about how they approach this struggle. Otherwise, what are we fighting for?”

“Arthur would go in, and he would make statements that, when you brushed away the gentility, the niceness, the intelligence, the calmness… his statement would be more militant than mine! I could say ‘good morning’, and people would take it like it was a death threat.”

Soon, Ashe would be vocally fighting against apartheid in South Africa, and going toe-to-toe with governments about injustice; his journey to activist may have been careful, but his end point was anything but.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The incredible story of Arthur Ashe’s life and activism isn’t told enough these days, and Citizen Ashe does a masterful job of telling it.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.