Arthur Ashe Mural In Richmond Park Vandalized With White Supremacist Graffiti

RICHMOND, VA — An Arthur Ashe mural in Richmond was vandalized with white supremacist graffiti Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, according to Richmond police.

Patriot Front, a U.S. white supremacist group, was tagged on the mural honoring the tennis star at the entrance to a tunnel in Battery Park in Richmond, 8News reported Thursday.

About 10:40 a.m. Thursday, police officers went to the 2800 block of Dupont Circle at Battery Park for the report of the vandalism. Police officers discovered spray paint on a tunnel in the park and on the Arthur Ashe mural at the entrance to the tunnel.

The police said there are no suspects at this time.

The Richmond Parks and Recreation Department told 8News that symbols were found on Arthur Ashe’s face as well as inside the tunnel on excerpts about his life. The department painted over the vandalism with white and black paint.

Ashe, who was born in Richmond, was the only Black man ever to win the tennis singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. He died in 1993 at the age of 49.

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who represents the suburbs of Richmond, including parts of Henrico County, denounced the vandalism.

"Patriot Front is a racist, antisemitic, white nationalist group," Spanberger said in a tweet. "This act of hate and aggression has no place in Virginia or our country. I denounce it."

Last week, flyers were found in Henrico County from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Henrico Citizen reported. Henrico County police increased their patrols in the communities where the flyers were distributed.

"The growing number of racist incidents in Virginia demonstrates a clear need for state and local leaders to speak out more strongly against systemic racism and white supremacy," Council on American–Islamic Relations National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement Thursday.

Earlier this year, graffiti promoting the Patriot Front was found near Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Leesburg.

The slogan “Revolution is Tradition” followed by “PatriotFront.US” was painted under a bridge behind Frederick Douglass Elementary School along Sycolin Road, with a clear view of the graffiti from the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.

Patriot Front is an offshoot of Vanguard America, which marched in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The group was founded shortly after Unite the Right rally.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front “was one of a number of hate groups that sought to recast itself as mainstream, patriotic Americans by dressing up their propaganda and rhetoric in Americana.”

Incidents of white supremacist propaganda distributed across the nation jumped by more than 120 percent between 2018 and 2019, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

About two-thirds of the total propaganda incidents in the 2020 report were traced back to Patriot Front.

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