Ben Shelton defeated Frances Tiafoe to win the singles title at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas. The final was the first-ever singles final played between two African-American men (although there have been finals played between two black playrers, at least one from another country other than the United States.)
The significance was not lost on Shelton during his post-match victory speech, saying to Tiafoe, “You’v been such an inspiration to kids, people of color in our sport. Thanks for all you do for our sport and peope who look like you and me.”
One couldn’t help but think what the late, great Arthur Ashe would have said with pride of the Shelton vs. Tiafoe final at River Oaks, a location where he was not allowed to play back in his early days of playing pro tennis.
In his book “Acing Depression: A Tennis Player’s Toughest Match” by Cliff Richey (for sale and download here https://a.co/d/6TLNh0Y) who won the title at River Oaks in 1970, discussed specific segregation and racism that Ashe faced at places like River Oaks, specifically.
The following is the book excerpt where Richey discusses Ashe at River Oaks.
Every year, we used to play the River Oaks Invitational in Houston, an old tournament that had been around for 40 years. The name says it all: it was an invitational. They had never invited Arthur because of segregation—and he wouldn’t have felt comfortable there anyway. It was one of the poshest country clubs in the southern United States. When tennis went open, it became a pro tournament with prize money. In 1971, the event became a stop on the World Championship Tennis (WCT) circuit. Arthur, by contract, was on the WCT tour that year and River Oaks was an official event on that tour. So they had to invite Arthur, whether they wanted to or not. They would have faced lawsuits if they had tried to bar him from playing. Well, when the club managers found out Arthur was coming, we suddenly found ourselves no longer in the main clubhouse locker room. They put us in the pool locker room instead! I mentioned something to the tournament people about it. They gave the excuse that the pool locker room was closer to the courts. Bullshit! That’s the kind of stuff Arthur had to put up with
