Play Audiobook Sample
A Hard Road to Glory, Volume 1 (1619-1918): A History of the African-American Athlete Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
With a Foreword by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
Available once again for a new generation, the first volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and the fulfillment of this legendary sports star and global activist’s lifelong dream.
When tennis great Arthur Ashe first published his A Hard Road to Glory trilogy, this ambitious project—recognizing the contributions of Black athletes to American sports and culture—was the first of its kind, a milestone in the presentation of United States social history.
Ashe had long believed that Black people needed to know their cultural history. But while teaching a seminar on the history of African American athletes at Florida Memorial College in 1981, he realized there was a vast amount of material about Black achievement that had never been collected, analyzed, and interpreted. To help to fill the gap, he began with the subject he knew best: sports.
A Hard Road to Glory Volume 1 covers the period from 1619, when enslaved Africans were first brought to American shores, to 1918, the end of the First World War. Ashe reveals that from 1865 through 1896, Black Americans succeeded spectacularly in sports, witnessing accomplishments of athletes like Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion; Marshall Taylor, “the world's fastest cyclist;” and Isaac Murphy, a Hall of Fame jockey and the first three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby.
In 2021, Black athletes and Black women in particular are receiving more visibility than ever for their unparalleled, world record-breaking excellence, their activism, and their leadership and vision. Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Naomi Osaka are consistently elevating athletics and are reshaping the way we think about sports, excellence, society, and history.
Arthur Ashe paved the way for them all; A Hard Road to Glory is fundamental to our understanding of Black athletes and our nation’s past, present, and future. Now more than ever, this collection is one of this amazing icon’s greatest legacies—a treasure to be celebrated by listeners today and those to come.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Download and start listening now!
A Hard Road to Glory, Volume 1 (1619-1918) Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), born in Richmond, Virginia, was an author and athlete. In his twenty-year tennis career, he won some of the most coveted singles championship games: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the World Cup Team Finals. He was a member of the US Davis Cup Team from 1963 to 1970 and in 1975, 1976, and 1978. As its captain, he led the team to victories in 1981 and 1982. He was a member of the US World Cup Team from 1970 to 1976, and in 1979. In 1980, after quadruple bypass surgery, he retired from professional tennis. He became National Campaign Chairman for the American Heart Association and the only nonmedical member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council. He contracted the HIV virus from a blood transfusion after a second bypass operation in 1983. Upon discovering this, he exhibited his perennial quality of action without acrimony and founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS. He succumbed to the disease in February 1993. He was married to professional photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, the author of Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers. They lived in New York City with their daughter, Camera.