
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994                   TAG: 9412070137
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

WILDER: ASHE BELONGS AMONG MONUMENTS

Just as Arthur Ashe transcended race in sports, he should be remembered with a statue of his own among Confederate heroes such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, former Gov. Douglas Wilder said.

``I just feel it needs to be on Monument Avenue,'' Wilder said Monday night during the kickoff of efforts to raise $400,000 to cast a bronze statue of Ashe. ``It will send a transcending message.''

Lee, Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and Confederate President Jefferson Davis are commemorated with large bronze statues along the handsome cobblestone avenue that stretches west for about two miles from downtown Richmond.

Ashe was the first black man to win the Wimbledon tennis championship and the U.S. Open. In his tennis instructional camps, he always urged students to pursue their studies and improve their minds.

The Ashe monument, which has been approved by his family, will be sculpted by Paul Di Pasquale of Richmond.

Wilder's proposal was applauded, but fund-raising leaders indicated that no decision has been made on where to place the monument to Ashe, who died in 1993.

Tom Chewning, fund-raising chairman, said he did not think there would be any difficulty in finding the money to pay for the statue.

``I know we'll raise the money in a hurry,'' he told about 200 people who had gathered for the unveiling of a 12-foot plaster proof of the statue. City Councilman Timothy Kaine, representing Mayor Leonidas Young, started the fund raising by presenting a check for $43,000 from the city. NationsBank offered a gift of $15,000.

When the Ashe monument is completed, it will be 24 feet tall with figures of four children surrounding a bronze statue of Ashe.

by CNB