High-achieving Black athletes throughout the decades have been inspired and motivated by those who came before them.
Most Blacks who were baseball fans then were fans just because of him.
We didn’t want anyone giving us anything.
Just give us a chance.
So, I grew up idolizing Jackie, even though I didn’t understand his passiveness.
And that’s what Jackie did he channeled whatever inequalities and anger he felt into excellence on the field.
He was playing himself and was so amazing.
I didn’t understand that I was watching one of the greatest footballers ever.
I think people underestimate the power of that.
Not only was she Black, but she had had polio.
She went from not being able to walk to performing in front of the world.
She also became my mentor and a friend.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee,59, won six Olympic medals in track and field, including three gold.
Jack came along only 30-some years after bondage.
Reconstruction was slavery by another name.
A man like Jack Johnson, living the way he did.
Listen, you were hung for looking at a white woman.
It was called reckless eyeballing.
Jack married three white women.
No one had ever seen a Black man like him in America.
And afterward, they tried to verify there would never be a Black champion like that again.
Then came Joe Louis and Ali.
But when I fought, I channeled Jack 100 percent, no doubt about it.
Mike Tyson,54, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, in 1986, at age 20.
There were events he wasn’t allowed to play; he fought his way through it.
While doing that, he fought against apartheid in South Africa.
When he was at his best, he was fighting for what was right.
He’s the reason my father got into tennis and why I got into tennis.
My father gave me Arthur’s bookDays of Gracewhen I was younger.
The more I learned about him, the more impressed I was.
He practiced what he preached.
James Blake,41, a former professional tennis player, was named Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year in 2008.
He works as an ESPN tennis analyst.
