Roberts may refer to:

People[link]

• Roberts (surname), a popular surname, especially among the Welsh

Places[link]

United States

• Roberts, Idaho
• Roberts, Illinois
• Roberts, Wisconsin
• Roberts County, Texas
• Mount Roberts (New Hampshire), a summit in the Ossipee Mountains

Other uses[link]

• Roberts class monitor, a class of British warship
• USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), a U.S. Navy frigate
• Roberts Cycles, a cycle manufacturer (also known as Chas. Roberts)
• Roberts Radio, a radio manufacturer
• .257 Roberts, a medium-powered .25 caliber cartridge

See also[link]

• Strebor, a lock manufacturer (Roberts spelled backwards)
• Trebor (disambiguation)
• Robertson (disambiguation)
• Robert (disambiguation)
• Robarts (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Paul Craig Roberts (born April 3, 1939) is an American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics.^[1] He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service who has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy.

Roberts is a critic of Israel, calling Gaza "the world's largest concentration camp" populated by people who were "driven out of Palestine so that Israel could steal their land." Roberts has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations. Although Roberts praised Ronald Reagan, he has compared supporters of George W. Bush to "brownshirts with the same low intelligence and morals as Hitler's enthusiastic supporters." He has opposed the War on Drugs and the War on Terror stating it has "made widows and orphans of millions of Muslims". He believes the official explanation for the events on 9/11 is a "scientific impossibility".

Publication[link]

He has written or co-written eight books, contributed chapters to numerous books and has published many articles in journals of scholarship.

His writings frequently appear on OpEdNews, Alex Jones' Prisonplanet.com, Antiwar.com, the web site VDARE.com. LewRockwell.com, CounterPunch. He is a contributor to the American Free Press which is critical of the New World Order and Israel. Roberts has been featured as a guest on the Political Cesspool radio show.^[2]

In order to create a coherent uncensored and unedited archive of Robert's writings, paulcraigroberts.org ^[3] was created by the The Institute For Political Economy and appeared in January 2012. His articles continue to appear in other venues, but are first available on this website along with links to relevant videos and books.

Biography[link]

Roberts is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was a post-graduate at the University of California, Berkeley and at Merton College, Oxford University.^[4] His first scholarly article (Classica et Mediaevalia) was a reformulation of "The Pirenne Thesis."

In Alienation and the Soviet Economy (1971), Roberts explained the Soviet economy as the outcome of a struggle between inordinate aspirations and a refractory reality. He argued that the Soviet economy was not centrally planned, but that its institutions, such as material supply, reflected the original Marxist aspirations to establish a non-market mode of production. In Marx's Theory of Exchange (1973), Roberts argued that Marx was an organizational theorist whose materialist conception of history ruled out good will as an effective force for change.

From 1975 to 1978, Roberts served on the congressional staff. As economic counsel to Congressman Jack Kemp^[5] he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill (which became the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981) and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy.^[4] His influential 1978 article for Harper's,^[6] while economic counsel to Senator Orrin Hatch,^[7] had Wall Street Journal editor Robert L. Bartley give him an editorial slot, which he had until 1980.^[8] He was a senior fellow in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, then part of Georgetown University.^[5]

From early 1981 to January 1982 he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. President Ronald Reagan and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan credited him with a major role in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, and he was awarded the Treasury Department's Meritorious Service Award for "outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy."^[4] Roberts resigned in January 1982 to become the first occupant of the William E. Simon Chair for Economic Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, then part of Georgetown University.^[9] He held this position until 1993. He went on to write The Supply-Side Revolution (1984), in which he explained the reformulation of macroeconomic theory and policy that he had helped to create.

He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Cato Institute from 1993 to 1996. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.^[4]

In The New Color Line (1995), Roberts argued that the Civil Rights Act was subverted by the bureaucrats who applied it and, by being used to create status-based privileges, became a threat to the Fourteenth Amendment in whose name it was passed. In The Tyranny of Good Intentions (2000), Roberts documented what he saw as the erosion of the Blackstonian legal principles that ensure that law is a shield of the innocent and not a weapon in the hands of government.

Recognition[link]

In 1987 the French government recognized him as "the artisan of a renewal in economic science and policy after half a century of state interventionism" and inducted him into the Legion of Honor on March 20, 1987. The French Minister of Economics and Finance, Edouard Balladur, came from France to present the medal to Roberts at a ceremony at the French Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. President Reagan sent OMB Director Jim Miller to the ceremony with a letter of congratulation.^[4]

In 1992 he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism from the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 1993 the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States.^[4]

Views[link]

Criticism of Bush[link]

Roberts opposed the Iraq War and writes frequently on the subject. On May 18, 2005, in response to the publication of the "Downing Street memo," Roberts wrote an article calling for Bush's impeachment for lying to Congress about the case for war.

Roberts was also a critic of a potential Bush administration attack on Iran. In an August 15, 2005 article, he states "Bush...dismisses all facts and assurances and is willing to attack Iran based on nothing but Israel's paranoia."

Although his criticisms of Bush often seem to align him with the political left, Roberts continues to praise Ronald Reagan and to endorse many of Reagan's policies, arguing that "true conservatives" were the "first victims" of the neoconized Bush administration.^[10] He has said that supporters of George W. Bush "are brownshirts with the same low intelligence and morals as Hitler's enthusiastic supporters."^[11]

Israel[link]

In an article for Counterpunch magazine titled "Pirates of the Mediterranean", Roberts wrote that for 60 years, Israel has replicated "the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers." Roberts repeated charges that Gaza is "the world largest concentration camp" populated by people who were "driven out of Palestine so that Israel could steal their land." He called the U.S. State Department a "puppet" of the Israelis and the U.S. itself a "puppet state" of the Israelis. He concludes the article by claiming that "there’s no money for California, or for Americans’ health care, or for the several million Americans who have lost their homes and are homeless, because Israel needs it."^[12]

The pro-Jewish [Anti-Defamation League] has criticized Dr. Roberts as promoting anti-semitism for his increasing focus on "criticism of Israel and Jews" making his writings "popular with fringe publications on both the left and the right".^[13] However, Dr. Roberts nominated Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper for the Nobel Peace Prize and he cautions against confusing a right-wing Zionist government with world Jewry. In one of his classic columns, "What Became of Western Morality?" (January 2005), he noted that it is Israeli newspapers, not American ones, that protest the Israeli government's atrocities against Palestinians:

"It is the goyim moralists who are silent, not the Jews. It is the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, not the goyim media, that provides reports of Israel’s abuse of Palestinians. Gideon Levy’s “The Neighborhood Bully Strikes Again” was published in Haaretz on Dec. 29, not in the goyim press. Levy’s words—”Once again, Israel’s violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom”—are not words that can appear in American print or TV media. Such words, printed in Israeli newspapers, never reach the goyim."

Dr. Roberts cautions against blaming all Jews for crimes of a right-wing government:

"The world will need to remember that although Israel is a Jewish state, it is a state whose policies many Jews find objectionable, just as a majority of American Jews oppose President Bush’s wars of aggression in the Middle East and his unconstitutional policies at home. We must not confuse Israel’s Zionist government with world Jewry, just as we must not confuse the American people with the war criminals in the Bush regime.

"Consider, who do you trust with your civil liberties, the U.S. Department of Justice or the ACLU’s phalanx of Jewish attorneys? [Dr. Roberts according to Who's Who In America is a member of the ACLU, a Jewish organization.]

"We must avoid the mistake that was made by blaming the German people for Adolf Hitler. It was the aristocratic German military that tried to remove Hitler. In contrast, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blocked the attempt to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Pelosi is a discredit to California, but shall we blame all of America for Pelosi’s defense of war criminals? How can we do so when U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich courageously read out the articles of impeachment on the House floor?

"Are all Americans guilty because Kucinich did not prevail?" ^[14]

Neoconservatives and the South Ossetia War[link]

In an interview on August 27, 2008, on a broadcast of The Alex Jones Show, Roberts stated that he believed that influential neoconservatives affiliated with the Bush administration were leading the United States into a nuclear confrontation with Russia over the situation in Georgia and South Ossetia. Roberts gave the conflict “almost total certainty if John McCain gets in office" and stated that the conflict would be in a timeframe of about two or three years.^[15]

2009–2010 Iranian election protests[link]

In a June 19–21, 2009 article in CounterPunch about the protests following the re-election of Ahmadinejad, Robert stated that while "the protests ... no doubt have many sincere participants," they "also have the hallmarks of the CIA orchestrated protests in Georgia and Ukraine. It requires total blindness not to see this."^[16]

September 11, 2001 attacks[link]

Of the 9/11 Commission Report he wrote in 2006, "One would think that if the report could stand analysis, there would not be a taboo against calling attention to the inadequacy of its explanations." (see Criticisms of the 9/11 Commission Report). He has reported what he says are findings by experts that conclude there is a large energy deficit in the official account of the collapse of the three WTC buildings, and says that this deficit remains unexplained.

Roberts comments on the "scientific impossibility" of the official explanation for the events on 9/11 and says those engineers and physicists who accept this theory are wrong. On August 18, 2006, he wrote:

I will begin by stating what we know to be a solid incontrovertible scientific fact. We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to “pancake” at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false... Since the damning incontrovertible fact has not been investigated, speculation and “conspiracy theories” have filled the void.^[17]

On the (back) cover of Debunking 9/11 Debunking (2007) he is quoted:

Professor Griffin is the nemesis of the 9/11 cover-up. This new book destroys the credibility of the NIST and Popular Mechanics reports and annihilates his critics.Book Cover Quote

Roberts adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party. "The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," he said. "You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda is not going to do it, it is going to be orchestrated."

When Anwar al-Awlaki, who was linked to some of the hijackers was killed by a drone attack, Roberts objected, calling it "The Day America Died". He wrote that although Awlaki was critical of "indiscriminate assaults on Muslim peoples" and "told Muslims that they did not have to passively accept American aggression", the US lacked evidence that either Awlaki was a real threat or an Al Qaeda operative^[18]

US media[link]

• "Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."^[19]
• "The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media. Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives—not by journalists—whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers. Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."^[20]

Society[link]

"If I had time to research my writings over the past 30 years, I could find examples of partisan articles in behalf of Republicans and against Democrats. However, political partisanship is not the corpus of my writings. I had a 16-year stint as Business Week's first outside columnist, despite hostility within the magazine and from the editor's New York social set, because the editor regarded me as the most trenchant critic of the George H.W. Bush administration in the business. The White House felt the same way and lobbied to have me removed from the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies... In their hatred of "the rich," the left-wing overlooks that in the 20th century the rich were the class most persecuted by government. The class genocide of the 20th century is the greatest genocide in history."^[19]

Outsourcing jobs[link]

Roberts has testified before the US–China Commission and written many articles pointing out that the offshoring of high productivity, high value-added jobs in manufacturing and professional services is dismantling the ladders of upward mobility that made the U.S. an opportunity society. Consequently, he is an opponent of Global Labor Arbitrage.

War on Drugs[link]

Though Roberts worked for the Reagan administration, which implemented a "zero tolerance" and "Just Say No" policy on illegal drugs and increased spending to combat drugs, in 2007, he penned an article on the web site VDare.com criticizing the excess of the War on Drugs which he termed the "militarization of local police".^[21]

War on Terror[link]

Roberts asked "Is the War on Terror a Hoax", and claims it has "killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans of millions of Muslims in six countries". Roberts called the attacks "naked aggression" on civilian populations and infrastructure which constitute war crimes.]]".^[21]

Republican Party[link]

Roberts is seriously dismayed by what he considers the Republican Party's disregard for the U.S. Constitution. He has even voiced his regret that he ever worked for it, avowing that, had he known what it would become, he would never have contributed to the Reagan Revolution.^[22]

American democracy and oligarchy[link]

Roberts has been increasingly critical of what he deems as the lessening of democracy in the U.S.; instead accusing it of being run by oligarchs by stating:

"The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowhere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty. And that's what the Greeks are in the streets, protesting. We see this all over the west. There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street... There is probably more democracy in China than there is in the west. Revolution is the only answer... We are confronted with a curious situation. Throughout the west we think we have democracy, we hold ourselves up high, we demonize China, we talk about the mafia state of Russia, we talk about the Arabs and so on, but where is the democracy here?" ^[23]

Cessation and resumption of journalism[link]

On March 26, 2010, Roberts announced he was "signing off" as a journalist in a column titled "Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It".^[24] However two months later another article by Roberts had appeared in counterpunch.org.^[25]

On March 26, 2010, in a farewell column titled, "Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It,"^[26] Roberts effectively announced his journalistic retirement. The article, published at Counterpunch.org, begins: "There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest." It proceeds to a bitter chronicle of the demise of American intellectual integrity, particularly that of financial journalists and economists. These have been thoroughly corrupted by monetary inducements to misrepresent and ignore what has been, in effect, the systematic dismantling of the nation's productive life, in the name of globalization. He holds the members of his own journalistic profession largely responsible for abetting relentless outsourcing of American industry, thereby gutting the American middle class and effectively dooming the nation's future. He describes his own ostracism from mainstream media access, the consequence of his relentless and unflinching criticism of the demolition process over the past decade. His column ends, "The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off."

Published works[link]

Books[link]

• Alienation and the Soviet Economy (1971, 1990) ISBN 0-8419-1247-5
• Marx's Theory of Exchange, Alienation, and Crisis (1973, 1983) ISBN 0-03-069791-3
• The Supply Side Revolution: An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington (1984) ISBN 0-674-85620-1
• Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy (1990) ISBN 0-932790-80-1
• The Capitalist Revolution in Latin America (1997) ISBN 0-19-511176-1
• The New Color Line: How Quotas and Privilege Destroy Democracy (1995) ISBN 0-89526-423-4
• The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice (2008) ISBN 0-7615-2553-X
• How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds (2009) ISBN 978-1-84935-007-5

Articles[link]

• CounterPunch
• Creators Syndicate
• LewRockwell.com
• Antiwar.com
• VDARE
• World News Daily Information Clearing House

References[link]

1. ^ Roberts, Paul Craig (June 10, 2004). The Real Reagan Record (August 31, 1992). National Review. Retrieved on February 27, 2010.
2. ^ "GUEST LIST". http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/guestlist.php. Retrieved November 29, 2009. 
3. ^ www.paulcraigroberts.org
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Biography - Paul Craig Roberts
5. ^ ^{a b} The Bulletin, 30 January 1981, "Roberts nominated"
6. ^ Paul Craig Roberts, "Disguising the tax burden: Little-known facts beneath the rhetoric of reform", Harper's, March 1978
7. ^ Bruce Bartlett, Human Events, 28 January 2002, "'Rich' Pay More Than What's Fair.", 58(4), p14
8. ^ Paul Craig Roberts, Washington Times, 17 December 2003, "Two who made a difference"
9. ^ Toledo Blade, 19 January 1982, Treasury Dept. Economist Quits Post: Advocate of Tax-Cut Plan Going To Georgetown U
10. ^ Paul Craig Roberts: Who Will Save America?
11. ^ The Reality Beneath the Flag-Waving
12. ^ Counterpunch
13. ^ Syndicated Columnist Paul Craig Roberts Promotes Anti-Semitism Syndicated Columnist Paul Craig Roberts Promotes Anti-Semitism
14. ^ 09-01- 2009 article
15. ^ Infowars
16. ^ Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated "Color Revolution?" Is This the Culmination of Two Years of Destabilization by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS]
17. ^ Roberts, Paul Craig (2006-08-16). "What we know and don’t know about 9/11". Information Clearing House. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14566.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-06. 
18. ^ "the day america died". lewrockwell (London). October 3, 2011. http://lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts328.html. 
19. ^ ^{a b} Paul Craig Roberts: Who Will Save America?
20. ^ VDARE.com: 08/16/06 - What We Know And Don’t Know About 9/11
21. ^ ^{a b} Paul Craig Roberts, Drug War Has Militarized Your Local Police
22. ^ The mother of all messes
23. ^ Video Interview: Co-Founder Of Reaganomics, Paul Craig Roberts, "There Is Probably More Democracy In China Than There Is In The West" May 2011
24. ^ "Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It" (counterpunch.org March 24, 2010)
25. ^ Progressives Want "Direct Action" But a Disarmed Public by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS counterpunch.org June 18–20, 2010
26. ^ http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03242010.html | Good-Bye: Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It (March 24, 2010)

External links[link]

• paulcraigroberts
• Column archive (2003-2009) at Antiwar.com
• Column archive (2006-2010) at Creators Syndicate
• Column archive (1995-present) at LewRockwell.com
• Column archive (1995-2009) at Vdare.com
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Paul Craig Roberts in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Profile at SourceWatch
• Nomination of Paul Craig Roberts To Be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, President Ronald Reagan, January 30, 1981

Interviews and articles

• Paul Craig Roberts interviewed on Alex Jones Show regarding active nuclear threat within next 2-3 years
• Paul Craig Roberts interviewed by Webster Tarpley^{[dead link]}
• Roberts' first article calling for Bush's impeachment^{[dead link]}
• Chuck Harder Interviews Paul Craig Roberts
• A Brief Interview with Paul Craig Roberts
• Downloadable audio interview with Scott Horton

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2012)

Craig Roberts (born 25 January 1991) is a Welsh actor. He is best known for playing the lead role of Oliver Tate in the coming-of-age comedy-drama film Submarine, and for playing the character Rio in The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Life and career[link]

Roberts was born in Maesycwmmer, Caerphilly, Wales.

He has appeared as the vampire fanatic Robin Branagh, in two seasons of the television show Young Dracula. He has also appeared in Care and Casualty.

Roberts appeared in the pantomime 'Snow White' in Worthing, where he played the evil queen's sidekick 'Drax' in January 2009. In 2008 he worked with Y Touring Theatre Company where he played the part of 'Ryan' in a UK national tour of 'Full Time' which was a play that explores issues of racism, sexism and homophobia in football. He also appeared in the BBC Three television show Being Human and the online spin-off series Becoming Human as Adam.^[1]

Roberts starred in the 2010 film Submarine^[2] which also stars Paddy Considine and Yasmin Paige.^[3][4]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y5m86
2. ^ Henry Barnes (2011-03-15). "'I love deadpan': Richard Ayoade and Craig Roberts on Submarine | Film | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/15/richard-ayoade-craig-roberts-submarine. Retrieved 2012-03-15. 
3. ^ White, James (2009-11-06). "Paddy Considine starring in Submarine". TotalFilm.com. http://www.totalfilm.com/news/paddy-considine-starring-in-submarine. Retrieved 2012-03-15. 
4. ^ "Submarine stars Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige: Q&A". Film4. http://www.film4.com/features/article/submarine-craig-roberts-yasmin-paige-interview. Retrieved 2012-03-15. 

External links[link]

• Craig Roberts at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a television actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Arthur Ashe

President Reagan greets Arthur Ashe (left) in 1982
Country	United States
Residence	Richmond, Virginia
Born	July 10, 1943 Richmond, Virginia, USA
Died	February 6, 1993(1993-02-06) (aged 49) New York City, New York, USA
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg; 11 st)
Turned pro	1969
Retired	1980
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$1,584,909 (according to the ATP)
Int. Tennis HOF	1985 (member page)
Singles
Career record	818–260 (at Grand Prix tour, WCT tour, and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	33
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1969)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1970)
French Open	QF (1970, 1971)
Wimbledon	W (1975)
US Open	W (1968)
Doubles
Career record	323–176 (at Grand Prix tour, WCT tour, and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	18 (14 according to the ATP)
Highest ranking	No. 15 (August 30, 1977)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1977)
French Open	W (1971)
Wimbledon	F (1971)
US Open	F (1968)

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a former World No. 1 professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes.

Early life and tennis career[link]

Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, Arthur and his younger brother, Johnnie, suffered a tragic loss when their mother died suddenly from heart related complications during routine surgery. Arthur Ashe first attended Maggie L. Walker High School, being coached by Ronald Charity, and later coached by Robert Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel great distances to play Caucasian youths in segregated Richmond, Ashe accepted an offer from a St. Louis tennis official to move there and attend Sumner High School.^[1] Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his playing.^[2]

Ashe was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963. That same year, Ashe became the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team.

In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles title and contributed to UCLA's winning the team NCAA tennis championship. While at UCLA, Ashe was initiated as a member of the Upsilon chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Ashe was also a member of the UCLA Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after completing camp at Fort Lewis, Washington in the summer of 1966.^{[citation needed]}

The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, on the campus of UCLA

In 1968, Ashe won the United States Amateur Championships against Davis Cup Teammate Bob Lutz, and the inaugural US Open and aided the U.S Davis Cup team to victory. He is the only player to have won both of these amateur and open national championships in the same year.^[3] Concerned that tennis professionals were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe supported formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals. That year would prove even more momentous for Ashe when he was denied a visa by the South African government, thereby keeping him out of the South African Open. Ashe used this denial to publicize South Africa's apartheid policies. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit.

In 1969, Ashe turned professional. In 1970, Ashe won his second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.

In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He also won the season ending championship WCT Finals. Arthur played for a few more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, he retired in 1980.

Ashe remains the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is one of only two men of black African ancestry to win a Grand Slam singles title, the other being France's metis Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranked Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.^[4]

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline[link]

¹The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.
A = did not participate in the tournament
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

Activities after retirement from professional tennis[link]

After his retirement, Ashe took on many new tasks, including writing for Time magazine, commentating for ABC Sports, founding the National Junior Tennis League, and serving as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second heart surgery. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. He also founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS.^[5]

In 1988, Ashe published a three-volume book titled A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete,^[6] after working with a team of researchers for nearly six years.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Ashe served in the US Army from 1966–68, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer he had met four months earlier. Andrew Young, the US ambassador to the UN, performed the ceremony at the UN chapel in New York City. Arthur and Jeanne adopted one child together, a daughter, who was born on December 21, 1986. She was named Camera after her mother's profession. Camera was only six years old when her father died.

In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack, an event that surprised the public in view of his high level of fitness as an athlete. His condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease. Ashe underwent a quadruple bypass operation, performed by Dr. John Hutchinson on December 13, 1979.^[8] A few months after the operation, Ashe was on the verge of making his return to professional tennis. However, during a family trip in Cairo, Egypt, he developed chest pain while running. Ashe stopped running and returned to see physician and close friend Douglas Stein, who had accompanied the family on the trip. Stein urged Ashe to return to New York City so he could be close to his cardiologist and surgeon.^[8]

Ashe promoting heart health after his heart attack.

In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the bypass surgery he received back in 1979. In 1988, Ashe fell ill and discovered he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during his second heart surgery, which ultimately led to his death. He and his wife kept his illness private until April 8, 1992, when reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his health condition because of his increasingly gaunt physical appearance forced him to make a public announcement that he had the disease.^[9] In the last year of his life, Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year. He also spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death. Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993.^[10] Ashe is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. His wife continues on with civil rights activism, most recently contributing a video to New Yorkers for marriage equality.

Civil rights leader[link]

Ashe, the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam event, was an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration.

He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. He was also arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Honors[link]

The Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2007 US Open

• In 1979, Arthur Ashe was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In commenting on his induction, the Hall noted that, ”Arthur Ashe was certainly a hero to people of all ages and races, and his legacy continues to touch the lives of many today. For Arthur Ashe, tennis was a means to an end. Although he had a lucrative tennis career, it was always more than personal glory and individual accolades. He used his status as an elite tennis player to speak out against the moral inequalities that existed both in and out of the tennis world. Ashe sincerely wanted to bring about change in the world. What made him stand out was that he became a world champion along the way.”^[11]
• In 1985, Ashe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• After his death, Arthur Ashe's body lay in state at the governor's mansion in his home state of Virginia. The last time this was allowed was for Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
• The city of Richmond posthumously honored Ashe's life with a statue on Monument Avenue, a place traditionally reserved for statues of key figures of the Confederacy. This decision led to some controversy in a city that was the capital of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.^[12]
• In 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
• The main stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, where the US Open is played, is named Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor. This is also the home of the annual Arthur Ashe Kids' Day.
• In 2002, Ashe's achievement at Wimbledon in 1975 was voted 95th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Arthur Ashe on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[13]
• In 2005, the United States Postal Service announced the release of an Arthur Ashe commemorative postal stamp, the first stamp ever to feature the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine.
• Also in 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 30th place in their list of the 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS Era.^[14]
• His wife wrote a book, Daddy and Me, a photographic journey told from the perspective of his young daughter. Another book, Arthur Ashe and Me, also gives young readers a chance to learn about his life.
• ESPN's annual sports awards, the ESPY Awards, hands out the Arthur Ashe for Courage Award to a member of the sports world who best exhibits courage in the face of adversity.
• Philadelphia's Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Center and Richmond's Arthur Ashe Athletic Center are named for Ashe.
• The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center at Ashe's alma mater, UCLA, is named for him. The center opened in 1997.
• He was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Hall of Fame in 1983.^[15]
• He was mentioned in the 30 rock episode Generalissimo in Season 3 when Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) talks about being offered serious roles and losing his audience, and holds up a screenplay while saying, "Do you really want to see me play Arthur Ashe?!?"

Schools[link]

Grand Slam finals[link]

Singles: 7 finals (3 titles, 4 runner-ups)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1966	Australian Championships	Grass	Roy Emerson	4–6, 8–6, 2–6, 3–6
Runner-up	1967	Australian Championships	Grass	Roy Emerson	4–6, 1–6, 4–6
Winner	1968	US Open	Grass	Tom Okker	14–12, 5–7, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	1970	Australian Open	Grass	Dick Crealy	6–4, 9–7, 6–2
Runner-up	1971	Australian Open	Grass	Ken Rosewall	1–6, 5–7, 3–6
Runner-up	1972	US Open	Grass	Ilie Năstase	6–3, 3–6, 7–6(5–1), 4–6, 3–6
Winner	1975	Wimbledon	Grass	Jimmy Connors	6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4

Doubles, 5 finals (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-Up	1968	US Open	Grass	Andrés Gimeno	Bob Lutz Stan Smith	11–9, 6–1, 7–5
Runner-Up	1970	French Open	Clay	Charlie Pasarell	Ilie Năstase Ion Ţiriac	6–2, 6–4, 6–3
Winner	1971	French Open	Clay	Marty Riessen	Tom Gorman Stan Smith	6–8, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 11–9
Runner-Up	1971	Wimbledon	Grass	Dennis Ralston	Roy Emerson Rod Laver	4–6, 9–7, 6–8, 6–4, 6–4
Winner	1977 (Jan)	Australian Open	Grass	Tony Roche	Charlie Pasarell Erik Van Dillen	6–4, 6–4

Grand Slam, Grand Prix and WCT Tour titles (33)[link]

Singles[link]

1.	August 1, 1968	U.S. Amateur Championships, Boston MA, USA	Grass	Robert Lutz	4–6, 6–3, 8–10, 6–0, 6–4
2.	August 29, 1968	US Open, New York City, USA	Grass	Tom Okker	14–12, 5–7, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3
3.	January 19, 1970	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Grass	Dick Crealy	6–4, 9–7, 6–2
4.	1970	Berkeley, California
5.	1970	Paris, France
6.	1971	Charlotte, USA
7.	1971	Paris, France
8.	1971	Stockholm, Sweden

• 1972 – Louisville WCT, Montreal WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1973 – Chicago WCT, Washington
• 1974 – Barcelona WCT, Bologna WCT, Stockholm
• 1975 – Barcelona WCT, WCT Finals, Los Angeles, Munich WCT, Rotterdam WCT, San Francisco, Stockholm – WCT, Wimbledon
• 1976 – Columbus WCT, Indianapolis WCT, Richmond WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1978 – Colombus, Los Angeles, San Jose

Video[link]

• Wimbledon 1975 Final: Ashe vs. Connors Standing Room Only, DVD Release Date: October 30, 2007, Run Time: 120 minutes, ASIN: B000V02CTQ.

See also[link]

Tennis portal

• Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York, NY
• Arthur Ashe Athletic Center, Richmond, VA
• Arthur Ashe Courage Award
• Arthur Ashe Kids' Day
• Levels of the Game, a 1969 book by John McPhee, exploring the 1968 U.S. Open semifinal match between Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe

Further reading[link]

Books by Arthur Ashe.

• Ashe, Arthur; Clifford George Gewecke (1967). Advantage Ashe. University of Michigan: Coward-McCann. p. 192. http://books.google.com/books?id=UcqBAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Ashe, Arthur; Neil Amdur (1981). Off the court. New American Library. p. 230. ISBN 0-453-00400-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Ashe, Arthur; Rampersad, Arnold (1993). Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42396-6. 
• Ashe, Arthur (1993). A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. New York, NY: Amistad. ISBN 1-56743-006-6, 1567430074, 1567430082. http://lccn.loc.gov/93007395. 

Books about Arthur Ashe, by date published.

• Robinson, Louie (1969). Arthur Ashe: tennis champion. Washington Square Press. p. 135. ISBN 0-671-29278-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=LqRPAAAACAAJ&dq=arthur+ashe&ei=kW6oSuXTIIPYNc_P6K4K. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Deford, Frank; Ashe, Arthur (1975). Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-20429-1. 
• Weissberg, Ted; Coretta Scott King (1991). Arthur Ashe—tennis great. Demco Media. p. 109. ISBN 0-7910-1115-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=wi-CNgAACAAJ. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Collins, David (1994). Arthur Ashe: against the wind. Dillon Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-87518-647-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=wgeSAAAACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Towle, Mike (2001). I Remember Arthur Ashe: Memories of a True Tennis Pioneer and Champion of Social Causes by the People Who Knew Him. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 1-58182-149-2. 
• Steins, Richard (2005). Arthur Ashe:a biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 103. ISBN 0-313-33299-1. 
• Mantell, Paul (2006). Arthur Ashe: Young Tennis Champion. Simon and Schuster. p. 224. ISBN 0-689-87346-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=TOgIQMjFE8QC&dq=arthur+ashe+school. 
• Henderson Jr., Douglas (2010). Endeavor to Persevere: A Memoir on Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Tennis and Life [Kindle Edition]. Untreed Readsurl=http://www.amazon.com/Endeavor-Persevere-Memoir-Connors-ebook/dp/B004EYTBHG. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arthur Ashe

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Arthur Ashe

• Arthur Ashe Learning Center (AALC) Website
• Sign Up for Arthur Ashe Learning Center (AALC) Newsletter
• Official Arthur Ashe website
• Arthur Ashe at the Association of Tennis Professionals

• Arthur Ashe at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Sports Illustrated Arthur Ashe tribute website
• Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
• FBI files—Arthur Ashe is mentioned within six references of records maintained within FBIHQ main files concerning the Black Panther Party, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Union and two newspaper articles.
• The Game – My 40 Years in Tennis (1979) — Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
• Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Manayunk, PA
• Finn, Robin. "Arthur Ashe, Tennis Star, Is Dead at 49," The New York Times, February 8, 1993.
• UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health & Wellness Center
• The short film Arthur Claims the Gold (1975) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]