Ground Broken for Ashe Statue Amid Protests
RICHMOND, Va. — About a dozen protesters carried Confederate battle flags as ground was broken Tuesday for a statue of tennis great Arthur Ashe on a boulevard dedicated to icons of the Old South.
The protesters, some in gray wool Confederate uniforms, were a small part of a crowd of about 600 who gathered on Monument Avenue.
Ashe was a Richmond native who, as a child, was not allowed to use the city’s whites-only tennis courts. He went on to become the first black to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He died in 1993 of AIDS.
“Some say that he doesn’t deserve to be here,” said former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor. “Some say he deserves better.”
The protesters were a reminder of months of debate in the former Confederate capital over where to place the statue.
They said they did not object to the statue but believed it should be put elsewhere.
The statue is to be dedicated next spring or early next summer.
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