New Delhi, May 25 -- Arthur Ashe, born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, became one of the most important figures in modern tennis and athlete activism. He won three Grand Slam singles titles - the 1968 US Open, the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975 - and broke racial barriers as the only Black man to win singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. Beyond sport, Ashe became a powerful voice on civil rights, anti-apartheid activism, education and HIV/AIDS awareness after publicly revealing his diagnosis in 1992. UCLA Library describes Ashe's legacy as extending across tennis, social justice, the AIDS/HIV crisis and American civil-rights history.

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the...