THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020090
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, the widow of the tennis star Arthur Ashe, said in an article published Monday that she opposed the city of Richmond's decision to put his statue on Monument Avenue, which now honors only Confederate heroes.
Moutoussamy-Ashe, a photographer who lives in New York, had remained silent throughout a seven-month debate over race and art that polarized Richmond, where her husband is buried. The statue, now being cast in bronze, was scheduled to be unveiled July 10, which would have been Ashe's 53rd birthday. But officials said the statement was certain to reopen the issue.
In an article Monday on the opinion page of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Moutoussamy-Ashe wrote: ``I am not in agreement with the decision to place the `Arthur Ashe monument' on Monument Avenue.
``My reasons are not politically driven; nor are they artistically or racially motivated. I have always felt that in all this controversy, the spirit that Arthur gave to Richmond has been overlooked. I am afraid that a statue of Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue honors Richmond, Va., more than it does its son, his legacy, and his life's work.''
She wrote that her husband had cooperated with the sculptor for a statue to go in front of an African-American Sports Hall of Fame, which Ashe wanted built in Richmond. Plans have bogged down over politics and financing.
Ashe, who once was barred from the segregated tennis courts of his hometown, later became known for his global promotion of human rights. He died of AIDS in 1993.
In Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, many citizens saw a powerful symbol of racial healing in the placement of a statue of Ashe on a boulevard best known for a shrine to Robert E. Lee.
But others in the city said it was insulting to Ashe's memory to put a statue of him on the same street as Confederate memorials. And still others said they wanted to preserve the historic integrity of Monument Avenue.
Thomas Chewning, who led the drive to raise money for the statue, said that if Moutoussamy-Ashe's view had been known earlier, ``it certainly would have put us down a different path.''
But Viola Baskerville, a member of the City Council, said she would urge her colleagues to stick with their decision.
``To say that a monument of this significance should be relegated to a sports hall of fame is to put Arthur back in the milieu he transcended,'' Baskerville said. by CNB