Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942 to Cassius Clay Sr., who was a sign painter and Odessa, who worked as a maid. The name was given to him to honour the white abolitionist and anti-slavery activist Cassius Marcellus Clay.
He grew up during a time when his birthplace Kentucky, like other southern states of the US, was segregated by race. He experienced racial prejudice and discrimination firsthand. There were separate schools, restaurants, swimming pools and restrooms for blacks and whites. At an early age, socialized in such a polarised environment, he found a passion in him to change the way people used to view and treat African Americans.
At the age of twelve, Cassius found an interest in boxing. As fortune had it, his bicycle had been stolen and he reported the theft to a policeman named Joe Martin. Seething in anger, he wanted to beat up the kids who stole his bicycle. Martin, the police officer sarcastically told him to learn how to fight before challenging people. Finding him interested in said proposition, Martin began training him and became his coach.
As a teenager, Cassius won several Gold Glove Championships and began to be considered one of the best amateur light-heavyweight boxers in the world. In 1960, at the age of eighteen, he travelled to Rome, Italy, to participate in the Olympics where he defeated all his opponents to win the gold medal. Upon returning home, he was lauded as an American hero following which he decided to turn to professional boxing. In 1962, he defeated his opponent Sonny Liston, to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
Two years later, Muhammad Ali was born when Cassius Clay Jr joined the Black rights movement andthe Nation of Islam (NOI),subsequently embracing Islam. According to Ali, Cassius Clay was a slave name that had kept him in bondage with a sinister history of subjugation.
The change in religion made him conscious of the role that he would perform throughout his life. With huge popularity behind him, Ali stood up against racism, segregation and discrimination. He was outspoken about many political issues including the Vietnam War, which he refused to be a part of. Ali had received a draft notice as the government wanted him to join the American troops to fight in the Vietnam War.
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Ali refused to join the Vietnam War and he became a conscientious objector. He reasoned by saying: “No, I am not going ten thousand miles away from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of the white slave masters of the darker people the world over”.
This led to his arrest and conviction, which he willingly accepted. In 1967, he was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. He was stripped of his championship titles, passport and boxing licenses. And it cost him his livelihood.
Ali turned to speaking at public events, mostly on topics such as racism and discrimination. He was actively trying to affect social change. He stayed out of prison as the case was appealed. He returned to the ring in 1970 and in the same year, the US Supreme Court overturned his conviction for evading the draft.
Even after the ban on Ali was reversed, he continued to help promoting world peace, civil rights, cross-cultural understanding, humanitarianism, hunger-relief and the universality of basic human values.
In 1974, Ali defeated his opponent George Foreman and reclaimed his heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be a heavyweight champion three times over. In 1981, it was revealed that Ali had Parkinson’s disease, which his doctors attributed to boxing-related brain injuries.
He retired and devoted much of his time to philanthropy, mostly advocating for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, which he himself battled. He created and raised funds for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Other charities he has helped include the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics.
Ali’s goodwill missions abroad also made an impact. He travelled to Iraq despite warnings from the Bush administration, to secure the release of fifteen US hostages during the first Gulf War in 1990. Saddam Hussein yielded to Ali probably because the latter was a critic of American oppression and hypocrisies. He also delivered medical aid of one million US dollars to Cuba. He himself delivered food and medical supplies to children in Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco and other nations.
During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Ali openly called him out as a liar and racist. Trump however went on to become the president and subsequently banned Muslims of several countries from coming to the US.
Amnesty International honored Ali with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He was bestowed with a citation as a UN Messenger of Peace by the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2005.
Ali wanted to become more than just a boxer. He wanted to use his face and fame to help uplift and inspire people around the world. Ali breathed his last at Scottsdale, Arizona on June 3, 2016.
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