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Essay Subject: Life, career, family, politics, religion, personality of Amer. boxing champion.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Life, career, family, politics, religion, personality of Amer. boxing champion. Paper Introduction: Muhammad Ali was a great boxer. But, of course, turned out to be much more than a boxer. His victory over Sonny Liston in 1964 for the heavyweight title was only the beginning of a public life that has been played out as much on the front page as on the sports page. This research examines the historical and legendary life of the boxer known as Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali’s life example has served as a pivotal point in history for breaking racist stereotypes. Ali eventually used his boxing fame to create an ethnic identity for Afro-Americans in American history. His life is one of a great boxer, a symbol of black pride, a creator of a new civil rights movement, and a living prophet of religion as tolerance. Not that his boxing feats can be minimized. Perhaps the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. And somehow the tragedy, or at least thesorrow, of his plight gives him astronger, even a mythic presence. After all this time, the bright lights of the public stage still havenot dimmed. No one wouldnotice when a white gave up his seat to a black, or an Indian gave up histo a Pakistani, or a Catholic gave up hers to a Protestant, or a Muslimgave up his to a Jew. They, too, had fought on against heavy odds, and probably some ofthem had prevailed, if only in modest ways. The cabinwas dark, and everyone else was asleep -- except Muhammad. Ali eventually used hisboxing fame to create an ethnic identity for Afro-Americans in Americanhistory. He stood firm anddefiant against anybody who would try to direct his life in violation ofhis own principles. Now he has discovered asoul more than a mind, and we have to listen to him as one who has put allthat early frivolity behind him. Ali's first religious experience occurredwhile he was travelling in a plane from Indonesia (Hauser 15-2 ). Nevertheless, what little records did exist of Ali's lineagefascinated the boxer. Of Muhammad Ali's immense physical beauty, God's or Allah's gift,there has never been any doubt; of his skill in the ring, the incredibletiming, the mastery of pugilistic rhythm, we can enthuse still: he isrecorded for ever as a wonderful fighting machine. Philip Randolph Civic High School in Harlem, and ifit were up to Muhammad Ali, it would always be that way. For American blacks, inparticular, documentary evidence is sparse, if it exists at all. He asserted hisindividuality in a world that demanded conformism, especially from Afro-Americans. This research examines the historical and legendary life of the boxerknown as Muhammad Ali. On December 19, 196 , Cassius Clayentered the Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach, and entered into legend. And, when coupled with his phenomenal feats of strength andcourage in the boxing ring and his "in your face" attitude toward those whowould chastise him, Muhammad Ali served as one of America's first powerfulrole models for future generations of Afro-Americans. Muhammad Ali seems not to have been reading the Qur'an in theoriginal. Afeature film is in the works in Hollywood. Inthis book, the spiritual leader Muhammad Ali follows, Imam WarithuddinMuhammad (a son of the late Elijah Muhammad), urges his followers tofulfill their obligations as citizens of the United States as a matter ofconscience, and to accept the burdens of the nation's defense as any othercitizen. Works CitedEarly, Gerald. He calls for establishing direct and genuine inter-faith dialoguebetween leaders of Al-Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Here, the public record of the lives of Muhammad Ali'sgreatgrandparents Tom Morehead and Lizzie Bibb ends and it leaves manyquestions unanswered. He used to distribute a book called "Prayer and Al-Islam," theAmerican Muslim Mission's explanation of its dogma (Edgerton 55). His refusal to fight in Vietnam would, in a white and weedy student ofsocial anthropology, have been termed treason. It was onlywhen the Muslim tapped the Jew on the arm that Abraham realized what wasbeing done. He was among the first Afro-Americans to embrace theNation of Muslim and served as a guiding light for future generations ofAfro-Americans to do the same. He heard the facts and the circumstantialevidence that linked blacks and whites as victims and aggressors, asfriends and enemies, as literal and figurative brothers and sisters(Edgerton 54). Muhammad Ali's life example has served as a pivotalpoint in history for breaking racist stereotypes. After a brief period in California, he boarded a train for Miami tostudy with Angelo Dundee, then as now considered perhaps the finest boxingteacher, or trainer, in the land. There is no indication of Tom Morehead's parentagenor of his military service. In one example of Muhammad Ali's character development beyond a boxer,Ali was about to give a speech at a high school in Harlem. Further clinical examinations, includingCAT, M.R.I. Was the family originally brought to America inslavery? Like Louis Armstrong, Muhammad Ali has shown theworld how an Afro-America can become great. and PET scans -- most notably at New York's ColumbiaPresbyterian Medical Center in 1985 -- have confirmed the initial diagnosis(Early 23-27). If he was going to beat theperson who stole his bike, the cop told young Cassius Clay, he had betterlearn to box first. Probably yes. He endorsed several Republican candidates for office,including Ronald Reagan, George Bush and the Utah Senator Orrin Hatch(Early 1 1-1 6). Once themost graceful of men, he is now trapped inside a silence brought on by thebrutal sport that he ruled. Perhaps the greatestfighter of all time, he held center stage for 2 years, winning theheavyweight title at an early age, defending it 19 times, challenging forit five times, and regaining it at an age only one other champ exceeded.But he was also a transcendental sports figure as important in his era asJackie Robinson was in his. Feat of Clay: The Making of the Ali Myth. His craziness before the firstListon fight was calculated to psych out the fearsome champ. He was despised, he was rejected,and then he was received as a king uncrowned, with all the world as hisrealm. His victory over Sonny Liston in 1964 for theheavyweight title was only the beginning of a public life that has beenplayed out as much on the front page as on the sports page. Who were the descendants and what happened to theirlives? Ali's overriding interest now is correcting what he feels is thepublic misapprehension of Islam. He called Liston "a big ugly bear" andsaid he would send him to a zoo or have him made into a bearskin rug. With this boldness of character firmly in place, Ali already begun togrow spiritually and mentally. He sensed a kinship, aconnection that bridged the unknown generations. Hestarted to box at age 12, and from the beginning had a bold, insouciantspirit. But, of course, turned out to be muchmore than a boxer. Muhammad Ali turned to finding his own roots, but apparently waslargely unsuccessful. Hewas 18 years old. Moreimportantly Ali's braggadocio showed, like successful people in otherfields, Ali dared to shatter stereotypes. He promoted - which is to say, marketed - not only his own careerbut boxing in general and, later, black pride, tolerance and civil rights.No one ever did it quite the way he did. Their lives were a revelation to him. His life is one of a great boxer, a symbol of black pride, acreator of a new civil rights movement, and a living prophet of religion astolerance. A small gesture, but the right one, and Ali did it as he sooften has in his life. One of Alis' trainers once saw him talking to a man withglasses and reddish hair, but he didn't take any pictures. No onegave him a chance. On Feburary. Not that his boxing feats can be minimized. He once studied a faded photograph of Tom and LizzieMorehead, two of his great-grandparents. That is what Ali did when he slid down in the middleof an assembly on tolerance and understanding at the nearly all-black highschool. He is a fighter who became a pacifist, an unlettered man who becamea voice of cross-cultural understanding. The subject in this case was Gorgeous George, thefirst of the over-the-top, blond- bombshell pro wrestlers, whosebraggadocio helped pack arenas in the 195 s. It was the place that Cassius Claybecame Muhammad Ali. In 1961, he began to attend a Nation ofIslam temple in Miami and heard the sect's message of self-reliance andracial separation. In 1982, Dr. Dennis Cope, director of the Medical Ambulatory CareCenter at U.C.L.A., made the connection between Ali's increasing motorproblems and Parkinson's disease. Muhammad Ali: In Perspective. And just as he did in developing aunique but effective boxing style, he came across his style of self-promotion by observing. He was fascinated bythem, drawn to them. But Ali's antics had anotherpurpose: to mess with his opponents' minds. So he gave him his. 25, 1964, the young, relatively untested Ali challengedListon for the championship at the Miami Beach Convention Center. When the fight was over, Ali hadwon and began his career as an all-time champion boxer. His overheadlight was on, and he was wide awake, reading the Qur'an. He was a great fighter, yes, but there was something in his manner,something in his nature that lifted the heart (Edgerton 54). Few people noticed thiswhen it happened at A. But his political affiliations were in the direction ofblack humiliation. More than three decades since he fought his way into theworld's notice with the quick fury of his fists and the exuberant strengthof his personality, Muhammad Ali remains a champion of the heart. These long-forgotten ancestors penetrated hisconsciousness. It may beassumed that the black forebears of Tom Morehead and Lizzie Bibb were theproperty of white Moreheads and Bibbs, whose family roots can be traced farback into colonial Virginia (in the case of the Moreheads, all the way backto 163 ), but no records exist to support that assumption (Edgerton 55). Beyond boxing, Ali's roles have ranged fromleader and lightning rod in an emerging era of black pride -- a "blastfurnace of racial pride," as one writer described him -- to early objectorto an unwanted war in Vietnam to a kind of ambassador who awakened Americato an awakening Third World (Rather 1). Earlier this year, a documentary about his championship fightwith George Foreman in 1974, When We Were Kings, won an Academy Award. Muhammad Ai hadrejected his slave name, found an independent Muslim religion, and refusedto fight in a war in which he had nothing at stake. In fact, he spent five yearsin prison for his defiance against the government but remained free onappeal -- an act that further enhanced his image as a positive blackleader. New York: Ecco Press, 1998.Edgerton, John. Recentlyrevised, it shuns the racial and nationalist antagonisms that typify manyof the sects such as the the Rev. Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. "Heritage of a Heavyweight." New York Times (September 28, 198 ): 54-55.Hauser, Thomas. We know he is an important figure of our time. In Ali's opinion, the average Americanonly knows about Palestinian guerrillas and all the trouble from Khomeiniand Qaddafi and hijackers -- but that is not what Islam is about. It was a means of recoveringblack dignity, throwing away a "slave name," when he changed his name fromCassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, synthesising an all-American outlook and avague Third World quality. He sought to find his roots and discarded his vestiges ofslavery. What few people seem to realize, after all this time, is that it wasin Miami that Muhammad Ali soared into the nation's imagination. At eight years old, as the oft-told story goes, Ali's bike was stolen.The incident put him in touch with a policeman who also happened to producea TV show showcasing young boxing talents. "Muhammad Ali on His 5 th Birthday." CBS News Transcripts (January 17, 1992): 1. Last summer, we watched his trembling hands light the Olympic torch.We see him now, moving slowly without speaking, dignified in his owndebility. Herecited elaborate poems, one of which had the fanciful image of Ali'spunches knocking Liston into outer space. With him it was promoted into an act of immense courage, a recoveryof black pride. He seemed to struggle in training, and his whole fightplan appeared to be his braggadocio. He listened intently as a reportertold him stories of slaves and free blacks who returned to Africa, orfought for the Union in the Civil War, or struggled against racialdiscrimination after the war. The brand of Islam he espoused is black and American, though ithad later qualified him for a trip to Mecca. But the whole of his life is sovast that we can onlytry to grasp its contradictions and its richness. He began his march to the mountaintop in Louisville, Ky., where he wasborn on January 17, 1942, and christened Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. Ali was also a good communicator, and not just through his famousbragging. It isabout peace and brotherhood. New York: Harpers and Collins, 1996.Rather, Dan. And in thatmoment, bathed in light, he looked stronger and more at peace with himself. Muhammad Ali was a great boxer. It was theplace he became a man, the place he became a Muslim, the place he became achampion, the place he won his fame. The blackIslamic warrior who has become a holy man saw immediately that there was noseat for an elderly white Jew. Nor is there any record to show when he died,where he was buried or who his survivors were. He let Time Warner Sports CEO Seth Abraham take a seat afterAbraham had introduced Thomas Hauser, Ali's friend and biographer and oneof several speakers who had joined the former world heavyweight championand his wife, Lonnie, to spend a few hours talking to students aboutbigotry and prejudice and their corrosive powers (Hauser 7 -8 ) When Ali silently slid over after he saw Abraham had lost his seat andhad sat on the floor of the stage in the school auditorium, no one noticedat first because no one but Ali had seen Abraham's predicament. Only later didhe realize it was Malcolm X. This is the point in history in which Muhammad Ali affected so manylives of Afro-Americans, serving as an example and teacher of black prideand black independence from the dominant white culture. Muhammad Ali is a black Muslim who appeals to people of all colors andfaiths. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.