by Dick Mac
Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay, January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, and died in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 3, 2016, at age 74.
In Jim Crow America, the young Cassius Clay was not afraid to be his own man, stood proudly as a professional, believed deeply in his personal convictions, and demanded change from Americans. He was instrumental in keeping the dialog of civil rights in the media, sports world, and pop culture.
After converting to Islam and changing his name, he said: "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize." I fear most African Americans know that this is still true today.
Ali proudly and bravely refused to participate in the Vietnam War stating: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" For his refusal to go to war, he was stripped of his title and banned from boxing.
He was relentless. He never gave up hope, and he never backed down.
Muhammad Ali is everything that America is intended to stand for, he is one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.
The movie "One Night In Miami" (2020) is a fictionalized story of Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke spending an evening together in a hotel room, confronting personal and political issues of the day. It's a movie, it is not history; but it challenges us with the problems of the day, many of which are still problems today.
See this video of Ali on the Dick Cavett show discussing his position on the Vietnam War: https://youtu.be/hxuqSzE2mB0
The accompanying image depicts Ali with the American poet Marianne Moore, who was an avid sports fan and great admirer of Ali.