Arthur Ashe
The 1960s black tennis star’s life was cut short by blood transfusion that led to AIDS. Ashe was the first black man to win the U.S. Open, indicating that people of color could play tennis and excel at it. After announcing that he had contracted AIDS in 1992, Ashe campaigned for more funding to treat and better manage the disease. On February 6, 1993, he died of AIDS-related pneumonia in New York at the age of 49.
