Earlier this week, MaliVai Washington was walking through Dulles International Airport when he spotted a familiar face. It was Arthur Ashe, wearing a typically stoic countenance, looking out at him from an advertising billboard.

	Like the statue that stands outside Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of the U.S. Open, the tennis great remains a presence today's athletes won't forget.

"Yes, it was him," Washington said from his northern Florida home. "Long after his death, Arthur is still relevant, he is still having a major impact on the international world.

"It took a lot of guts. I can't imagine the pressure he was under, playing in South Africa or Wimbledon in 1975," he said. "Very few people have the personality and character and strength to want to do what he did."

And what he wanted to do was to help people that couldn't always help themselves. Children were one of his most treasured causes. Two days before the U.S. Tennis Association holds its annual tournament in Flushing, N.Y., the organization celebrates "Arthur Ashe Kid's Day." It has raised more than $2.5 million for the Arthur Ashe Foundation over the past six years.

A lot of it goes toward making tennis more accessible for disadvantaged children. The Williams sisters -- the two best women's tennis players in the world -- grew up in the economically depressed community of Compton, Calif. They owe Ashe a direct debt. James Blake, currently the highest-ranked black man on the ATP Tour (at No. 24), falls into that category, too.

Ashe visited the Harlem Junior Tennis Program when Blake was barely taller than a racket. As time went on, Blake educated himself on Ashe's contributions to the game and beyond, and came to see Ashe as a role model.

"His legacy is the fact that everyone who speaks of him talks about the fact that he was a great person," Blake said. "He did whatever he could to make situations for other people better."

And this altruism moved others to follow his selfless example. Ashe managed to achieve something rare and beautiful; he made people want to be better people.

"No question," Washington said. "People always ask me what kind of impact Arthur had on my career. On a personal level, I was able to beat him a couple of times. I would have loved to win Wimbledon [he lost the final to Richard Krajicek]. I would have loved to accomplish the things he did on the court. But a lot of it was the inspiration to do things off the tennis court.

"Like Arthur, I felt the urge to be not just a citizen of the world but a citizen of my community."

Washington founded the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation in 1994. Since then, more than 10,000 children in the Jacksonville, Fla., area have been exposed to tennis. Last year, the foundation's Sixth Annual Golf and Tennis Gala raised $81,000 for the cause.

Zina Garrison, seven times a top-10 player between 1983-90, learned to play tennis at MacGregor Park in Houston. Today, under the banner of her All Court Tennis Foundation, she teaches the game to youngsters on the same courts.

"Beyond the serve and volley game, Arthur taught me, through his example, how to be a humanitarian," said Garrison, who reached the 1990 Wimbledon final, the first African-American woman to do so in the 32 years since Althea Gibson. "I can only hope to fill half his shoes."

Said Chanda Rubin, ranked at No. 12 and one of four African-American women among the WTA's top 24, "It's wonderful to see the programs that bear his name still continue and remain successful. The ideals he promoted will hopefully live for a long time."

In 2002, 23.2 percent of the participants in the USA Tennis 1-2-3 program were African-Americans -- nearly double the percentage of African-Americans in the U.S., based on the Census 2000 figures.

"I have seen so many effects by the Williams sisters," Blake said. "The Williams sisters [have] become so prominent to all young girls that want to be involved in sports. They have made such a great, positive difference. I think that's something Arthur would be proud of."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.