Martin Luther King Jr., Arthur Ashe partners in spirit via community service collaboration

Arthur Ashe’s voice as an activist wasn’t initially trumpeted as loudly as the likes of Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali. But Ashe’s work was seen and acknowledged in a letter sent to the tennis star by the biggest voice in the movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I would like to express my personal appreciation for your expression of support and solidarity in the fight for justice, freedom and dignity for all people in this country,” Dr. King wrote.

That the two would eventually work together appeared inevitable, but that potential partnership was thwarted by the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968, two months after he sent that letter.

You can say, however, that Dr. King and Ashe are partnered in spirit through the King family’s Realize the Dream Foundation, which will announce a community service partnership on Monday with the USTA Foundation to help reach the goal of 100 million hours of community service by Dr. King’s 100th birthday in 2029.

“The (Realize the Dream Foundation) grew out of conversations within our family and with partners who asked how we could honor my father’s legacy in a way that felt alive and forward-looking,” said Martin Luther King III. “We did not want another moment of remembrance. We wanted movement.”

The commitment from the USTA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the United States Tennis Association, will be in the form of 800,000 hours of pledged service that will come, in part, from participants in the National Junior Tennis and Learning program — a group co-founded by Ashe. Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open winner, has already pledged the support of her two NJTL chapters, and the USTA Foundation expects other players associated with chapters to follow suit.

“We encourage them to develop youth-led community service projects,” said Robert Howland, senior director at the USTA Foundation. “It’s my hope that we reach our goal before the end of 2026.”

Major League Baseball and the NFL previously pledged support to the Realize the Dream community service initiative, which launched in 2024.

While Dr. King took the time to acknowledge Ashe by writing that letter in February 1968, the two never met. While Dr. King’s voice was silenced two months later in Memphis, Tennessee, Ashe’s voice became more amplified as he emerged as a pioneering figure in the sport. He became the first Black man to win a tennis major with his 1968 victory at the US Open (he later won the Australian Open and Wimbledon).

“That letter, it meant the world to Arthur that Dr. King would have even acknowledged the fact that his position in the world gave him an opportunity to be able to truly make a difference,” said Ashe’s widow, Jeanne Moutoussamy Ashe. “Dr. King’s letter gave him real exhilaration and sense of pride and even more commitment to what he already had in his plans. I’m glad this collaboration (Realize the Dream Foundation/USTA foundation) will bring tennis and community service to the forefront.”

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