LYNCHBURG, Va. – “White Lives Matter” being spray painted on the Arthur Ashe statue in Richmond is not sitting well with those who knew the tennis legend.
Later, Black Lives Matter was sprayed over the words.
The monument sits on Memorial Avenue in Richmond where a Confederate statue was also vandalized.
Ashe has ties to the Lynchburg and spent his summers at Dr. Robert Johnson’s home. Johnson served as Ashe’s tennis coach.
Johnson’s grandson, Lange Johnson, watched tennis greats Ashe and Athea Gibson play on the Pierce Street court.
He said vandalizing Ashe’s statue was the wrong thing to do.
“Arthur Ashe’s statue will be cleaned up and it will be reset and off we go, but it’s just going forward how do we overcome these challenges? And how do we get people to settle down and understand exactly what the real problems are,” said Lange Johnson, the founder of Whirlwind Johnson Foundation.
Ashe is a Richmond native and the monument was dedicated in 1996 to counterbalance the string of Confederate statues on Memorial Avenue.