Former tennis champion and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe died Saturday of AIDS-related pneumonia. He was 49.

Ashe, the only Black person ever to win the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open tennis tournaments, was an active supporter of AIDS research. The tennis star announced last spring that he had contracted AIDS from a 1983 blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery.

"Not only was Arthur a leading figure and pioneer for minorities in sports and business, but also in the fight against HIV and AIDS," said former basketball star Magic Johnson, who has tested positive for the AIDS virus.

Ashe replaced Johnson last June as Class Day speaker at the Medical School after Johnson canceled to witness the birth of his child.

"[Ashe] was definitely an inspiration to us," said Chinua O. Sanyika '93, co-director of Harvard's AIDS Education and Outreach, who met Ashe in November.

Ashe, the top-ranked player on the tennis circuit in 1968 and 1975, was also well known for his work against apartheid.

He supported efforts in 1970 to ban South Africa from the Davis Cup tennis tournament and was arrested in 1985 during an anti-apartheid protest at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Ashe urged Black athletes to use their success to promote civil rights and received an Emmy Award for the television screenplay of his three-volume book, "A Hard Road to Glory," which chronicles the trials of Black athletes in America.

The Harvard AIDS Institute presented Ashe with the first annual AIDS Leadership Award in December, recognizing his "outstanding vision, leadership, and courage in the world's struggle against AIDS."

"I'm one of the many who admired him from afar," said Dr. Jonathan M. Mann '69, director of the International AIDS Center at the Institute.

Ashe joined the board of the Institute last April after his announcement. He founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for the Defeat of AIDS soon afterward. "His very personality demanded respect," said Dina L. Cordoves '93, the other co-director of AIDS Education and Outreach.

Ashe is survived by his wife, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, and a daughter, Camera.

This story was compiled with wire dispatches.