Whereas Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open Tennis Championship on September 9, 1968, in the first year the tournament was open to professionals, while he was on active duty based at the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point; Whereas Arthur Ashe's victory, following his amateur U.S. National Championship title two weeks earlier, marked the first time an African-American man won a major title; Whereas Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 10, 1943, and raised by his widowed father in a house on the grounds of Brook Field, the largest playground for blacks in Richmond, the segregated capital of the former Confederacy; Whereas Arthur Ashe first learned to play tennis at 7 years old and showed enough talent to later receive coaching and guidance from Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, a pioneer for black tennis players; Whereas, although prohibited in Richmond from competing in tournaments and practicing at municipal indoor courts because of segregation, Arthur Ashe won the National Junior Indoor tennis title, becoming the first African-American male to do so and earning a scholarship in 1963 to play tennis at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps; Whereas Arthur Ashe graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and was assigned to West Point by the United States Army, where he earned promotions to first lieutenant and also led the tennis program; Whereas the amateur and professional tennis accomplishments of Arthur Ashe included National Collegiate Athletic Association singles and doubles titles, the Australian Open title in 1970, and the Wimbledon title in 1975; Whereas Arthur Ashe became the first black player selected to the Davis Cup team for the United States, which he later coached; Whereas Arthur Ashe's accomplishments on the tennis court gave him a platform to pursue social justice during a turbulent time in the civil rights era