Float Like A Butterfly

Muhammad Ali: The man who changed his sport and his country.

09:10 06 June 2016

Muhammad Ali did everything he could to nurture black pride during an era when African-Americans continued to be treated second-class citizens and subjected to an ugly and often brutal system of racial apartheid.

 

After knocking out Charles “Sonny” Liston in February 1964, Ali became the heavyweight champion of the world and commanded the respect and awe of a larger black constituency.

 

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who became a close friend of Ali, said: "Here was a guy that we all wanted to be like that was standing for something. I remember as a kid I didn't want be like an old preacher in a suit and tie going to jail.

 

"You wanted to be Muhammad Ali. You wanted to float like a butterfly sting like a bee. You wanted to be the one that all the girls wanted. You wanted to be the one that could pack arenas. He made it exciting to be part of the movement."

 

After changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, he embraced the separatists’ teachings of the Nation of Islam and placed himself on the radical fringe of the struggle for black equality.

 

Julian Bond, a former student activist, said: "The act of joining was not something many of us particularly liked," "But the notion he'd do it, that he'd jump out there, join this group that was so despised by mainstream America, and be proud of it, sent a little thrill through you."