Cassius Makes A Point: Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, back home after a tour of African nations, said today he would feel safer in Mississippi than in New York, where integration is preached but not always practiced. He said the Civil Rights Bill passed by Congress, won't solve the problem. He said the Black Muslims have the answer in complete separation of the races, Louisville.

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) (1942-2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest boxers of all time. At the age of 22, in 1964, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali. He set an example of racial pride for blacks and resistance to white domination during the Civil Rights Movement. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI) and advocated their black separatist ideology. He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, practicing Sufism, and supporting racial integration, like his former mentor Malcolm X. In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white establishment by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges, and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971, by which time he had not fought for nearly four years and thereby lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.

Associated Press ID #6407020160

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: manuscript title, Associated Press stamp and date stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Africa
• Black separatists
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Civil Rights Movements
• Desegregation
• Injustice
• Louisville
• Muhammad Ali
• Muhammad Ali
• Nation of Islam
• Racial Discrimination
• Safety

• Image Dimensions: 9 x 6 9/16 in. (22.86 x 16.67 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 9 15/16 x 8 1/16 in. (25.24 x 20.48 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen

This object is a member of the following portfolios: