Ali

by Jonathan Eig

  “a great evil”: “The Day Henry Clay Refused to Compromise,” Smithsonian.com, December 6, 2012, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/­history/­the-day-henry-clay-refused-to-compromise-153589853/.

  continued to own scores: U.S. Census.

  that slave was John Henry Clay: Keith Winstead, interview by author, June 16, 2016.

  “For it is through our names”: Ralph Ellison, The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), 192.

  “John asks me to give his Xmas compliments”: Henry Clay Jr. to Henry Clay, January 1, 1847, Henry Clay Memorial Foundation Papers, University of Kentucky Special Collections, Lexington.

  Herman Heaton Clay quit school: 1940 U.S. Census, www.ancestry.com.

  handsome man, strong and tall: Coretta Bather, interview by author, March 28, 2014.

  had a baby boy: “Slave Inhabitants in District No. 2,” Fayett County, Kentucky, 1850,U.S. Census, www.ancestry.com.

  while playing craps in an alley: Trial transcript, November 12, 1900, Commonwealth v. Herman Clay.

  “was going to get hurt”: Ibid.

  an illiterate day laborer: 1900 U.S. Census, www.ancestry.com.

  “I had this knife”: Trial transcript, November 12, 1900, Commonwealth v. Herman Clay.

  “Death was instantaneous”: “Shot through the Heart.”

  he and Priscilla divorced: “NINE DIVORCES GRANTED,” Louisville Courier-Journal, November 10, 1901.

  After six years in the state penitentiary: “Penitentiary Labor,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 2, 1906.

  December 30, 1909: Kentucky Marriage Records, www.ancestry.com.

  killing his wife with a razor: Death certificate, Kentucky Death Records, www.ancestry.com.

  “For those who have respect”: Remnick, King of the World, 83.

  2. THE LOUDEST CHILD

  “Dark Gable”: Keith Winstead, interview by author, June 17, 2016.

  luxurious vibrato of his singing voice: “Black Is Best: Mr. and Mrs. Cassius Clay, Sr., Interview,” by Jack Olsen, n.d., sound recording, Jack Olsen Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene.

  KING KARL’S THREE ROOMS: Ibid.

  twenty-five dollars and a free chicken dinner: Dave Kindred, Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (New York: Free Press, 2007), 30.

  A black man was better off: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  “When Cassius is working on a sign”: “Muhammad Ali’s Father, Cassius M. Clay Sr., Dies,” Louisville Courier-Journal, February 10, 1990.

  gin was his usual: Olsen, Black Is Best, 49.

  “He couldn’t fight a lick”: Ibid.

  “You’re a beautiful lady!”: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  June 25 in St. Louis: Marriage certificate, Cassius Clay to Odessa Grady, June 25, 1941, St. Louis, Missouri, City Recorder of Deeds, St. Louis.

  six-pound, seven-ounce baby: Muhammad Ali and Richard Durham, The Greatest: My Own Story (New York: Random House, 1975), 33.

  small rectangular mark: Kindred, Sound and Fury, 30.

  “most beautiful name”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 42.

  West Oak Street: Birth certificate for Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., January 17, 1942, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Public Health, Office of Vital Statistics, Frankfort.

  six or seven dollars a month: Population Schedule, 1940 U.S. Census, www.ancestry.com.

  “He cried so much”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 33.

  wallpaper white with red roses: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  Cassius had the bed by the window: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, October 19, 2016.

  seventy-two inches away: measured by author, October 19, 2016.

  their clothes came from Goodwill: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 39.

  smelled of paint: Coretta Bather, interview by author, March 28, 2014.

  the aroma of Odessa’s fine cooking: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  “Of course, we knew everyone”: Georgia Powers, interview by author, August 6, 2014.

  “Our childhood was not difficult”: Alice Kean Houston, interview by author, April 18, 2014.

  “Cassius Jr’s life to me”: Odessa Clay, untitled Cassius Clay biography, n.d., Jack Olsen Papers.

  “Woody Baby”: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  ate that on the way to school: Olsen, Black Is Best, 43.

  “We were like twins”: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, October 19, 2016.

  never letting his younger brother win: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  “those kids had some large heads”: Mary Turner, interview by Jack Olsen, transcript, n.d., Jack Olsen Papers.

  couldn’t swim at all: Larry Kolb, interview by author, January 2, 2017.

  “That Gee would run around”: Owen Sitgraves, interview by author, April 23, 2015.

  his father’s plum tree: “Black Is Best: Mr. and Mrs. Cassius Clay, Sr., Interview.”

  the police car: Owen Sitgraves, interview by author, April 23, 2015.

  “I would make ’em take naps”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 45.

  “Cassius Jr. would always go in first”: Ibid.

  “a more polite racism”: Tom Owen, interview by author, November 11, 2014.

  granted the right to vote: Tracy E. K’Myer, Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, Kentucky, 1945–1980 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009), 10.

  “where do the colored people work?”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 34.

  annual median income: U.S. Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Population, 1950, vol. 2, Table 87 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1952), www.census.gov.

  he was permitted to play: George C. Wright, Life behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky, 1865–1930 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985), 276.

  “We’d stand by the fence”: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, November 10, 2014.

  colored people had to suffer so: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 34.

  Herman boasted: Ibid., 37.

  “If we hadn’t stopped to drink”: W. Ralph Eubanks, “A Martyr for Civil Rights,” Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2015.

  “Why can’t I be rich?”: Nick Thimmesch, “The Dream,” Time, March 22, 1963, 78.

  3. THE BICYCLE

  twelve-year-old Cassius pedaled: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 8, 2014.

  Visitors registered to win: Advertisement, Louisville Defender, October 7, 1954.

  popcorn and candy: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 45.

  “what my father would do”: Ibid.

  Cassius and Rudy were supposed to share: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 30, 2014.

  “I almost forgot about the bike”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 45.

  “hotter’n a firecracker”: Joe Martin, interview by Jack Olsen, Jack Olsen typed notes, n.d., Jack Olsen Papers.

  emptying coins from parking meters: Ibid.

  “Do you know how to fight?”: Ibid.

  “Why don’t you come down here”: Ibid.

  parents bought him a motorized scooter: “Black Is Best: Mr. and Mrs. Cassius Clay, Sr., Interview.”

  It was all the prompting: Olsen, Black Is Best, 46.

  “those boys really went at it”: Ibid., 52.

  “He was just ordinary”: “ ‘Who Made Me — Is Me!’ ” Sports Illustrated, September 25, 1961, 19.

  good at shooting marbles: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 8, 2014.

  “I wanted to be a big celebrity”: Muhammad Ali television interview, Good Morning America, ABC, January 13, 1977.

  “One needed a handle”: James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Vintage International, 1993), 21.

  “racing the bus”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 38–39.

  When
the bus stopped: Owen Sitgraves, interview by author, March 30, 2016.

  “Sometimes he’d hop on”: Ibid.

  who drank almost every day: Vic Bender, interview by author, October 1, 2015.

  looking in the mirror at his muscles: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 8, 2014.

  “It was almost impossible”: Thomas Hauser, with Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), 19.

  “It’s safe to say”: Claude Lewis, Cassius Clay: A No-Holds-Barred Biography of Boxing’s Most Controversial Champion (New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1965), 23.

  “Any fighter who’d get”: Geoffrey C. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness (New York: Knopf, 2004), 17.

  “We are in the midst”: Ibid., 14.

  “I grew to love the Jack Johnson”: Remnick, King of the World, 224.

  4. “EVERY DAY WAS HEAVEN”

  cut him with a knife: Charles Kalbfleisch, interview by Jack Olsen, n.d., Jack Olsen Papers.

  “They’ll kill each other”: Ibid.

  “He used to go with my aunt”: Howard Breckenridge, interview by author, November 20, 2014.

  For three days after suffering: Kindred, Sound and Fury, 36.

  “strapped”: Story notes, March 13, 1963, Time magazine article, Nick Thimmesch Papers, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

  two children out of wedlock: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 8, 2014.

  “Every day was heaven”: Ibid.

  “I just know I had a nice time as a kid”: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay, 11.

  school’s best athlete in 1959: Centralian, 1959, Jefferson County Public School Archives, Louisville.

  “About the onliest other sport”: “Playboy Interview: Muhammad Ali,” Playboy, November 1975.

  shadowboxed in the halls: Victor Bender, interview by author, October 19, 2016.

  “National Golden Gloves Champion”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 64.

  “are you listening”: Lewis, Cassius Clay, 19.

  27% of whom were black: Omer Carmichael and Weldon James, The Louisville Story (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957), 14.

  “White and Negro children”: “Louisville Quiet as Its Schools End Segregation.” New York Times, September 11, 1956.

  district agreed to choose: Ibid.

  170 school boards: C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 154.

  The building Cassius attended: Thelma Cayne Tilford-Weathers, A History of Louisville Central High School, 1882–1982 (Louisville: N.p., 1982), 18.

  classes in dry-cleaning: Ibid., 19.

  “dumb as a box of rocks”: Marjorie Mimmes, interview by author, August 8, 2014.

  “Not the sharpest tack”: Owen Sitgraves, interview by author, April 23, 2015.

  “I sat next to the skinny kid”: “Ali Delights Pupils Here at a Tribute to Dr. King,” New York Times, January 13, 1973.

  he earned a sixty-five: Hauser, with Ali, Muhammad Ali, 22.

  “very dyslexic”: Lonnie Ali, interview by author, January 31, 2016.

  “made me feel like something different”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 64.

  pretended he was a girl: Marjorie Mimmes, interview by author, August 30, 2014.

  money in a change purse: Nack, My Turf, 178.

  “I don’t know anybody”: Vic Bender, interview by author, October 19, 2016.

  Scientists believe dyslexia: “The Advantage of Dyslexia,” Scientific American, August 19, 2014, www.scientificamerican.com.

  Baker was a legend: Howard Breckinridge, interview by author, November 20, 2014.

  “He was inhuman”: Ibid.

  outweighed Cassius: “The Legend That Became Muhammad Ali,” Louisville Courier-Journal, January 28, 2011.

  “You’re crazy if you get in the ring with him”: Ibid.

  “This ain’t fair!”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 43.

  “baddest dude I know”: Ibid.

  167 amateur bouts: Ibid., 51.

  82–8, with twenty-five knockouts: Bob Yalen, interview by author, August 6, 2016.

  four-month respite imposed: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay,19.

  “Rudy had more potential”: Vic Bender, interview by author, June 9, 2014.

  eat meatloaf: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 30, 2014.

  “I know how far I can go”: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 51.

  two trays to carry: Remnick, King of the World, 93.

  “I started boxing because”: José Torres, Sting Like a Bee (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1971), 83.

  once found him sleeping: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay, 21.

  “the black boys couldn’t go”: Remnick, King of the World, 96.

  “I’m taller than you”: Nack, My Turf, 181.

  Cassius told Dundee: Angelo Dundee and Mike Winters, I Only Talk Winning (Worthing, UK: Littlehampton, 1985), 17.

  Turley was short: “Legendary Cowpoke,” St. Petersburg Times, October 1, 1980.

  Turley had bloodied: “T. J. Jones of Chinook Reaches Quarterfinals in Golden Gloves,” Billings Gazette, February 26, 1958.

  Turley and Cassius traded punches: “Rocky Erickson: Boxer Francis Turley,” Rocky Erickson: Montana Sports Stories, vol. 1, www.youtube.com.

  stepped out of the St. Clair Hotel: Ali and Durham, The Greatest, 90.

  “Well, that’s some of everything”: Ibid., 93.

  “getting shellacked pretty good”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 53.

  number of professional boxers: Jeffrey T. Sammons, Beyond the Ring (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 149.

  rivaled I Love Lucy in the ratings: Ibid., 149.

  “New York won an unprecedented”: “Louisville Youth Steal Spotlight in Golden Gloves,” Lawton Constitution, March 26, 1959.

  5. THE PROPHET

  on his feet, shadowboxing: Lewis, Cassius Clay, 25.

  frightened before every one of his fights: Larry Kolb, interview by author, December 7, 2016.

  “We trained together”: Hauser, with Ali, Muhammad Ali, 25.

  “almost everybody is against discrimination”: Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2009), 2:1010.

  Before he changed his name: C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994), 12.

  Fard began holding meetings: Ibid., 11.

  This philosophy, though unusual: Ibid., 47–48.

  He built a base: Ibid., 16.

  “an especially anti-American and violent cult”: FBI report, June 28, 1955, FBI Vault.

  “Without the failings of Western society”: Louis Lomax, When the Word Is Given (Chicago: Signet, 1963), 10–11.

  “Why are we called Negroes”: Recorded by Louis X, www.youtube.com.

  “brainwashed, hypnotized”: Olsen, Black Is Best, 134.

  “Cassius really knew how to fight”: Ibid., 53.

  boxing almost constantly: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay,20.

  “My mind was not as quick as his”: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 30, 2014.

  Cassius never wore a watch: “A Split Image of Cassius Clay,” Louisville Courier-Journal, November 25, 1962.

  made his brother a promise: Rahaman Ali, interview by author, August 30, 2014.

  he competed as a heavyweight: “Jones, Clay Top Gloves Final Night,” Chicago Defender, March 9, 1960.

  “WATCH CLAY in the future”: Memo, n.d., Hank Kaplan Boxing Archive, Archives and Special Collections, Brooklyn College Library, Brooklyn, New York.

  “Let’s forget the Olympics”: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay,22.

  6. “I’M JUST YOUNG AND DON’T GIVE A DAMN”

  “I’m just young”: “Clay Making Great Mileage in Publicity and Contacts,” Louisville Times, February 28, 1961.

  Some boys weren’t interested: Jamillah Muhammad (formerly Areatha Swint), interview by author, Decemb
er 9, 2014.

  the same phobia: Olsen, Black Is Best, 54.

  “flips and things”: Ibid., 54–55.

  “The decision by Clay”: “Should an Athlete Be Forced to Fly? Clay May Miss Olympics,” Louisville Times, May 2, 1960.

  “But then he went to an army supply”: “The Legend That Became Muhammad Ali.”

  flight to San Francisco hit turbulence: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay, 25.

  His previous opponent had: “10 Finals in Olympic Ring Show Tonight,” Daily Independent Sun (San Rafael, CA), May 20, 1960.

  “He was the most obnoxious guy”: Tommy Gallagher, interview by author, July 17, 2015.

  “I hate to say it”: Ibid.

  Hudson and Clay barked: “Black History Month: The Army Boxer Who Knocked Down Muhammad Ali (1960),” The CBZ Newswire, http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/­blog/?p=19447.

  to lend him money for a train: Joe Martin, interview by Jack Olsen, Jack Olsen typed notes, n.d., Jack Olsen Papers.

  “He was not a good student”: “The Legend That Became Muhammad Ali.”

  7. AMERICA’S HERO

  “Ain’t he gonna get in trouble”: Remnick, King of the World, 101.

  What struck newcomers: Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, 48.

  “I could’ve converted him to Judaism”: Dick Schaap, interview, ESPN Classic, transcript of broadcast interview, August 25, 2000.

  “with a pride and serenity”: Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, 51.

  no bragging for once: Dick Schaap, interview, ESPN Classic.

  “His usual haughty, disdainful self”: Ibid.

  “I was so hurt”: “Playboy Interview: Muhammad Ali,” Playboy, November 1975.

  Cassius Marcellus Clay VII: “Clay, McClure Most Colorful Pugilists,” Laredo Times, September 4, 1960.

  Clay noticed: “Patterson Clay’s Goal,” Louisville Times, September 6, 1960.

  “Be seeing you in about”: Cottrell, Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay, 27.

  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful”: “The Press Box: Have to Make Good,” Louisville Times, August 24, 1960.

  Twelve percent of the men: “U.S. Negroes Play Big Role at Olympics,” Winnipeg Free Press, August 30, 1960.

  “Is there a crisis for Negroes”: Ibid.

  “If there is a Rome winner”: “U.S. Boxers Unimpressive,” El Paso Herald Post, August 18, 1960.