Arthur Ashe

ARTHUR ASHE d1993. American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He was the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon / the US Open and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. He is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery in 1983. He publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of just 49 on February 6th 1993. On June 20th 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by United States President Bill Clinton