THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070395
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: PEOPLE
SOURCE: Compiled by Ev Hu
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart stand in bronze effigy on Monument Avenue. Virginia's former governor would like to see them joined by a different kind of hero: Arthur Ashe.
A statue of the Richmond-born tennis star and humanitarian should be placed on the avenue reserved for Virginia's Confederate heroes, said former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.
``It will send a transcending message,'' just as Ashe transcended racial boundaries, Wilder said Monday during the kickoff of efforts to raise $400,000 for a bronze statue of Ashe.
Fund-raising leaders indicated that no decision has been made on where to place the monument to Ashe, who died of AIDS in 1993.
A 12-foot plaster proof of the statue was unveiled at the event. The final version will be 24 feet high with figures of four children surrounding Ashe, who will have books in one outstretched hand and a tennis racket in the other.
Ashe was the first black man to win the Wimbledon tennis championship and the U.S. Open. Wilder was the nation's first elected black governor. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Arthur Ashe
by CNB