Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on January 17, 1942) is a retired American boxer Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., (who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay). Ali later changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam and subsequently converted to Sunni Islam in 1975. Ali refused to respond to his name being read out as Cassius Clay, stating, as instructed by his mentors from the Nation of Islam that Clay was the name given to his slave ancestors by the white man.started boxing when he was twelve
· Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me. ""I have got no quarrel with those Vietcong" and "no Vietcong ever called me negro." Ali's actions in refusing military service and aligning himself with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod for controversy, turning the outspoken but popular former champion into one of that era's most recognizable and controversial figures. Appearing at rallies with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and declaring his allegiance to him at a time when mainstream America viewed them with suspicion — if not outright hostility — made Ali a target of outrage, and suspicion as well. Ali seemed at times to even provoke such reactions, with viewpoints that wavered from support for civil rights to outright support of separatism. "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs? "
Ali won a different kind of fight. Ali's appeals against his draft evasion conviction had gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, who unanimously reversed the lower court's decision on June 28, 1971. Ali had been exonerated. he had his boxing license revoked due to public outrage that he avoided the draft for the Vietnam war
Muhammad Ali was the first diagnosed with Parkinson syndrome in 1984 his
Muhammad Ali was the first diagnosed with Parkinson syndrome in 1984 his