Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. in January of 1942, Ali is an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport’s history. A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is today widely regarded as much for the values he exemplified outside the boxing ring as he is revered for the immense skills he displayed in it.

At a time when most fighters let their managers do the talking, Ali thrived in the spotlight, where he was sometimes provocative, frequently outlandish and always entertaining. He controlled most press conferences and interviews, and spoke freely about issues unrelated to boxing. Ali was an outspoken opponent of both racial inequality and the Vietnam War, and though he was drafted to fight in the latter, he refused to be enter the armed forces. His status as a conscientious objector was at first denied, and he was stripped of his heavyweight title, lost his passport and was denied the right to box in every state of the union. This unjust suspension lasted for four years — the prime years of his athletic career — as his case slowly worked its way through the appeals process of the American “justice system”.

And yet this period of his life was anything but wasted, as Ali used the hiatus to speak out at colleges and universities across the country, openly criticizing the administration’s war on Vietnam and advocating for racial justice. During this time, Ali’s courage and unwavering principle inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. (who had previously been reluctant to address the Vietnam War for fear of alienating the Johnson Administration’s support of the civil rights agenda) to voice his own opposition to the war as well.

In 1971, the US Supreme Court overturned Ali’s conviction in a unanimous 8-0 ruling, and his boxing career recommenced. After retiring from boxing in 1981, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, a disease common to those suffering head trauma from activities such as boxing. Despite the progressively degenerative nature of his condition, Ali continued to be a public representative for peace and justice; traveling to Iraq in 1991 in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages, and to Afghanistan in 2002 as an official “U.N. Messenger of Peace”.

“Ali’s actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete’s greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?” ~ New York Times columnist William Rhodes

“There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people … To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich … Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.” ~ Muhammad Ali

“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.” ~ Muhammad Ali

“Friendship is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything … I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.” ~ Muhammad Ali

 

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt