Ali: Spirit of the 60s

Cassius Clay was just a boxer. A boxer who captured the hearts of Americans while winning the 1960's Olympic gold. Here was a young man at the age of 18, representing the greatest nation on the planet and making his people proud. He would again gain the fascination of America with his defeat of the anti-hero of the time Sonny Liston. However, this hero famed across mainstream America would not last, all it would take was a man finding himself. Introducing Muhammed Ali, another boxer. However, just a boxer was not simple enough. This man who used to be called Cassius Clay, now embodied the radical change that was beginning to creep it's way into American society. This Ali rejected what he called his "slave name" and now accepted the religion of Islam, a slap to the face of those Christian Americans who rallied behind him when he was in Rome and when he defeated Sonny Liston. This man and his strange religion of Islam now captured America in a different sense, one that didn't sit too well with many. He would soon become the anti-hero of some and at the different spectrum a hero to others. His life would parallel the decade. This man would represent a catalyst of change to the system and to society. It would take another battle to create this change though, not against any other burly man swinging his arms, but against a government and it's war.

Ali's battle with the US government really captured the epic social battle that was happening in America. New, some would say radical, themes and ideas had boomed in this decade of confusion and turbulence. Ali being a black Muslim made him the ideal foe to a government that at the time was conservative, Christian derived and backed. Ali was part of a the greater social movement of the 60's, a social revolution that brought attention to new ideas, faiths, and nerve to question the government. Essentially, Ali was a poster child of a new emerging America, one that was tired of the conformist ideals of the 50's. Ali's battle was not just one for himself, but for the new generation of America that held the ideals of acceptance, difference, and change. Ali was not only the champion of boxing, but with his battle against the US government he would find himself becoming the champion of the people.

Young, brash and black, Ali would became a frightening symbol to the establishment when the country was in turmoil over civil rights and Vietnam.

To know who Muhammad Ali is and what he stands for, there needs to be an understanding of who Cassius Clay was. Cassius Clay symbolizes the young naÐ"Їve man who is yet to understands his surroundings. True, Clay understood the concept of segregation being raised in the southern city of Louisville, but he didn't really immerse himself in ridding of it. The events of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King didn't really strike young Clay. The real shocker of what was really going on in America at the time involved the terrible event that happened in Money, Mississippi Aug. 1955.# This is the event which really brought the concept home to Clay. The incident involved a young black named Emmett Till. Emmett was from Chicago and was sent to visit family down south in Mississippi. While there he flirted with a white women, the women's husband caught word and later found Till and brutally murdered the young boy. The crime was publicly shown along with the trial. However, even though the men who murdered Till were obviously guilty, the men were acquitted and set free. Young Clay really felt an impact from the case. "I felt a deep kinship to him when I learned he was born the same year and day I was", Ali would later write.#

Ali would write later about what he did when he was a boy to get back at those that failed Till. Essentially it was his first real protest against the establishment or so he wrote. What he did is symbolic because it was him and his friends throwing rocks at a poster of Uncle Sam and his famous words of "Uncle Sam Wants You".# A small event that would later symbolize the large one that would occur when Ali was battling against the US government. Along with that incident, young Clay and his friends apparently aided in the derailment of train as well. True or not, Clay's eyes were open to the situation and they would never close to it.

In time, Clay would battle his way through the boxing ranks. He would win state, national, and golden glove championships. This is where he began to capture the eye the public. Not only for his skills as a boxer, but his uncanny charisma, most importantly his mouth.# A skill that would undoubtedly serve him later in his life. While building his career, he was also building himself. Though marked in controversy, according to the FBI and later admitted by Ali, he first became acquainted with the Nation of Islam in 1958. Here he would hear blacks voicing their opinions about whites and injustices. There he would feel a sense of black pride.# However, the message that was given by the Nation of Islam was viewed as a negative one by most of society, including blacks. It's message was based on violence and was extremely counter-culture. Thus decidedly, Clay would keep the experience and it's effect to himself.

Clay would soon reach his first real national experience. He would gain the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1960's Olympics. While there he would be asked a question by a Soviet reporter. The question brought up focused on how he will return to a country that treats his kind like second rate citizens. Ali was quoted as saying "We have our problems, sure, but tell your readers we got qualified people working on that, and I'm not worried about the outcome."# How naÐ"Їve the young Clay was, this quote really showed how care free his life at the time was. His attitude would soon change, along with the country he was coming home to.

The years following the Olympics are the ones where Clay would find himself becoming Muhammad Ali. Clay would begin to immerse himself more and more into the Nation of Islam. Also during this time, Clay began to battle his way up in the ranks, soon his hopes were to fight then title holder Sonny Liston. More and more his interest grew in the Nation too. He would soon be under the wing of one of it's spiritual leaders Malcolm X. Clay understood that to announce his interest in Nation of Islam might jeopardize his chance to fight Liston for the title, but he could not quite restrain himself. Hiding, concealment, and lying were not Clay's traits. In time his new faith would leak to the presses.# Also in time, the monumental first fight of his career would happen as well.

The year of 1964 would be a memorable year for Clay. It was