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A sailor and a tennis player on Monument Avenue Richmond, Virginia Part Three
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Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia /P.Dolinski
Along with the generals there is room for memorials to a sailor and chart maker, and a tennis player.
Traffic streams past along Monument Avenue and most of the monuments are big enough to get a look at while stopped at a light, or driving by.
The memorials for Matthew Fontaine Maury and Arthur Ashe, however, are worth the effort to park, wait for the lights to cross into the wide grassy median, and have a closer look.
Arthur Ashe Monument
The monument to Arthur Ashe was unveiled at the rotary site at Monument Avenue and Roseneath Road on his birthday, July 10, 1996.
As the sculptor, DiPasquale of Richmond, met Arthur Ashe in 1992 and asked for his permission and input, this is one of the few memorials to have participation by the subject. After his death in 1993, his wife and other family members advised and approved the design the privately funded memorial. It was not without controversy in the community that an African American athlete and activist became part of the historic Monument Avenue, but the Richmond City Council Public finally selected the Monument Avenue site in July 1995.
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. was born on July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. His mother died when he was six, so he was raised by his father who worked at a park in suburban Richmond where there were tennis courts. He was the first and only African American player to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon. He was ranked number one in the world.
In 1968 Ashe was denied a visa by the South African government which kept him from playing in the South African Open. He campaigned against South Africa’s apartheid policies and called for them to be expelled from the professional circuit.
Despite his athletic life, Arthur Ashe had heart operations at a relatively young age. Through a blood transfusion in 1983 he developed HIV, which led to him establishing the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS to provide treatment to AIDS patients and to promote AIDS research throughout the world. This foundation was transferred to an endowment at NY Cornell Medical Center.
This memorial to Arthur Ashe, showing his life, his work with young people, and his efforts to make the world a better please is a fitting modern addition to this street of monuments, and a refreshing change from the traditional general on a horse.
Matthew Fontaine Maury Monument
The "Pathfinder of the Seas" monument to Matthew Fontaine Maury may also seem a bit out of place in the midst of generals and war memorials along Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. However, Maury spent the Civil war in Europe working for the Confederate Secret Service, so he does fit it with the monuments off to the east of him.
The monument to Maury was added in to Richmond in 1929. The statue was originally to have been placed in Washington, D.C., but it was refused because he had left the Union military to support his home state in the Confederacy.
As a person who has spent years at sea depending on charts and weather forecasting, I can appreciate the contributions of this man who was Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C. He gathered information, analyzed records, and prepared Pilot's Charts used by ships. He attending a conference in Europe in 1853 and encouraged other nations to follow his ideas of safety on land and sea. Sailors ever since have owed him a debt of gratitude.
The memorial facing in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean has a globe of the earth. There are graphic depictions of weather, including a farmer, a boy and a dog, and a sinking boat with people clinging to it. There are fish, dolphins, jellyfish, and birds around the perimeter.
Other articles on Monument Avenue:
Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson on Monument Avenue Part Two
Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia Part One - Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart
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