"We take the stars from heaven, the red from
our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that
we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to
posterity, representing our liberty."
– George Washington,
acceptance of American Flag, June 14, 1777; "Celebrating America’s
Freedoms: The United States Flag," U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:1
Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who
famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and then spent a lifetime
living up to the billing, is dead. Ali died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital,
where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory
complications, a family spokesman confirmed to NBC News. He was 74. "After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's
disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time
World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a
family spokesman, told NBC News. Ali had suffered for three decades from
Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological condition that slowly
robbed him of both his legendary verbal grace and his physical
dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville,
Kentucky. Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy
from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December
criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to
ban Muslims from entering the United States. "We as Muslims have to
stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,"
he said. The remark bookended the life of a man who burst
into the national consciousness in the early 1960s, when as a young
heavyweight champion he converted to Islam and refused to serve in the
Vietnam War, and became an emblem of strength, eloquence, conscience and
courage. Ali was an anti-establishment showman who transcended borders
and barriers, race and religion. His fights against other men became
spectacles, but he embodied much greater battles. Born Cassius Clay on Jan. 17, 1942 in
Louisville, Kentucky, to middle-class parents, Ali started boxing when
he was 12, winning Golden Gloves titles before heading to the 1960
Olympics in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a light heavyweight. He turned professional shortly afterward,
supported at first by Louisville business owners who guaranteed him an
unprecedented 50-50 split in earnings. His knack for talking up his own
talents — often in verse — earned him the dismissive nickname "the
Louisville Lip," but he backed up his talk with action, relocating to
Miami to train with the legendary trainer Angelo Dundee and build a case
for getting a shot at the heavyweight title.
Muhammad
Ali, right, attacks Alex Mitoff in the sixth round in which Ali
clobbered the Argentinean to the canvas, on Oct. 7, 1961 in Louisville,
Ky. H.B. Littell / AP, file
As his profile rose, Ali acted out against
American racism. After he was refused services at a soda fountain
counter, he said, he threw his Olympic gold medal into a river. Recoiling from the sport's tightly knit
community of agents and promoters, Ali found guidance instead from the
Nation of Islam, an American Muslim sect that advocated racial
separation and rejected the pacifism of most civil rights activism.
Inspired by Malcolm X, one of the group's leaders, he converted in 1963.
But he kept his new faith a secret until the crown was safely in hand.
That came the following year, when heavyweight champion Sonny Liston
agreed to fight Ali. The challenger geared up for the bout with a litany
of insults and rhymes, including the line, "float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee." He beat the fearsome Liston in a sixth-round
technical knockout before a stunned Miami Beach crowd. In the ring, Ali
proclaimed, "I am the greatest! I am the greatest! I'm the king of the
world."
A Controversial Champion The new champion soon renounced Cassius Clay as
his "slave name" and said he would be known from then on as Muhammad Ali
— bestowed by Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. He was 22 years
old. The move split sports fans and the broader
American public: an American sports champion rejecting his birth name
and adopting one that sounded subversive. Ali successfully defended his title six times, including a rematch
with Liston. Then, in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Ali was
drafted to serve in the U.S. Army. He'd said previously that the war did not
comport with his faith, and that he had "no quarrel" with America's
enemy, the Vietcong. He refused to serve. "My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother,
or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big
powerful America, and shoot them for what?" Ali said in an interview.
"They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didn't put no
dogs on me." His stand culminated with an April appearance at
an Army recruiting station, where he refused to step forward when his
name was called. The reaction was swift and harsh. He was stripped of
his boxing title, convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years
in prison. Released on appeal but unable to fight or leave
the country, Ali turned to the lecture circuit, speaking on college
campuses, where he engaged in heated debates, pointing out the hypocrisy
of denying rights to blacks even as they were ordered to fight the
country's battles abroad. "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcongs or
Chinese or Japanese," Ali told one white student who challenged his
draft avoidance. "You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer
when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. You won't even
stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs and you want me to
go somewhere and fight but you won't even stand up for me here at home."
Muhammad
Ali is held back by referee Joe Walcott, left, after Ali knocked out
challenger Sonny Liston in the first round of their title fight in
Lewiston, Maine on May 25, 1965. AP, file
Ali's fiery commentary was praised by antiwar
activists and black nationalists and vilified by conservatives,
including many other athletes and sportswriters. His appeal took four years to reach the U.S.
Supreme Court, which in June 1971 reversed the conviction in a unanimous
decision that found the Department of Justice had improperly told the
draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by religious belief. Return to the Ring Toward the end of his legal saga, Georgia agreed
to issue Ali a boxing license, which allowed him to fight Jerry Quarry,
whom he beat. Six months later, at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, he
lost to Joe Frazier in a 15-round duel touted as "the fight of the
century." It was Ali's first defeat as a pro. That fight began one of boxing's and sport's
greatest rivalries. Ali and Frazier fought again in 1974, after Frazier
had lost his crown. This time, Ali won in a unanimous decision, making
him the lead challenger for the heavyweight title. He took it from George Foreman later that year
in a fight in Zaire dubbed "The Rumble in the Jungle," a spectacularly
hyped bout for which Ali moved to Africa for the summer, followed by
crowds of chanting locals wherever he went. A three-day music festival
featuring James Brown and B.B. King preceded the fight. Finally, Ali
delivered a historic performance in the ring, employing a new strategy
dubbed the "rope-a-dope," goading the favored Foreman into attacking
him, then leaning back into the ropes in a defensive stance and waiting
for Foreman to tire. Ali then went on the attack, knocking out Foreman
in the eighth round. The maneuver has been copied by many other
champions since. The third fight in the Ali-Frazier trilogy
followed in 1975, the "Thrilla in Manila" that is now regarded as one of
the best boxing matches of all time. Ali won in a technical knockout in
the 15th round. Ali successfully defended his title until 1978,
when he was beaten by a young Leon Spinks, and then quickly took it
back. He retired in 1979, when he was 37, but, seeking to replenish his
dwindling personal fortune, returned in 1980 for a title match against
Larry Holmes, which he lost. Ali lost again, to Trevor Berbick, the
following year. Finally, Ali retired for good.
Muhammad
Ali, right, takes a punch from Trevor Berbick, of Canada, during the
first round of their 10-round bout in Nassau, Bahamas, in this Dec. 11,
1981 file photo. AP, file
'He's Human, Like Us'The following year, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease."I'm in no pain," he told The New York Times. "A
slight slurring of my speech, a little tremor. Nothing critical. If I
was in perfect health — if I had won my last two fights — if I had no
problem, people would be afraid of me. Now they feel sorry for me. They
thought I was Superman. Now they can go, 'He's human, like us. He has
problems.' '' Even as his health gradually declined, Ali — who
switched to more mainstream branches of Islam — threw himself into
humanitarian causes, traveling to Lebanon in 1985 and Iraq in 1990 to
seek the release of American hostages. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame
in Atlanta, lifting the torch with shaking arms. With each public
appearance he seemed more feeble, a stark contrast to his outsized aura.
He continued to be one of the most recognizable people in the world.
Muhammad Ali attends the Sports For Peace Fundraising Ball at The V&A on July 25, 2012 in London. Ian Gavan / Getty Images, file
He traveled incessantly for many years,
crisscrossing the globe in appearances in which he made money but also
pushed philanthropic causes. He met with presidents, royalty, heads of
state, the Pope. He told "People" magazine that his largest regret was
not playing a more intimate role in the raising of his children. But he
said he did not regret boxing. "If I wasn't a boxer, I wouldn't be
famous," he said. "If I wasn't famous, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm
doing now."
In 2005, President George W. Bush honored Ali
with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his hometown of Louisville
opened the Muhammad Ali Center, chronicling his life but also as a forum
for promoting tolerance and respect. Divorced three times and the father of nine
children — one of whom, Laila, become a boxer — Ali married his last
wife, Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams, in 1986; they lived for a long time in
Berrien Springs, Michigan, then moved to Arizona. In recent years, Ali's health began to suffer
dramatically. There was a death scare in 2013, and last year he was
rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive. He recovered and
returned to his new home in Arizona. In his final years, Ali was barely able to
speak. Asked to share his personal philosophy with NPR in 2009, Ali let
his wife read his essay:
"I never thought of the possibility of failing,
only of the fame and glory I was going to get when I won," Ali wrote. "I
could see it. I could almost feel it. When I proclaimed that I was the
greatest of all time, I believed in myself, and I still do."
