Muhammad ali who is

Image by Ira Rosenberg public domain , via Wikimedia Commons. Muhammad Ali was best known for his exceptional boxing career. He was an incredible athlete, once heard to say, "I never said I was the smartest, I said I was the greatest. Ali said this because although he was a great boxer, he barely graduated high school due to his struggle with reading.

In , at age eighteen, Ali won a gold medal at the Rome Summer Olympics. Later that year he turned professional. Ali progressed through a number of fights before he was finally offered the opportunity to battle Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. The fight was held in Miami on February 25, Ali scored a knockout in the seventh round and became the heavyweight champion.

In , just before the fight with Liston, he publicly announced his conversion to the Nation of Islam. At the same time, he declared, "Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it, and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name — it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me. Unlike other civil rights leaders such as Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. The accomplishments of Muhammad Ali are renowned: Olympic gold medalist, heavyweight boxing champion, humanitarian, civil rights activist. But would you believe he also was a Grammy Award nominee in and ? Trading in his boxing gloves and shorts for black tie and tails, Historically, Black women in sports faced double discrimination due to their gender and race. A number of African American female athletes have emerged as trailblazers in their particular sports over the years, from track and field and tennis to figure skating and basketball.

After being allowed entry to the When the British landed there in , at the start of the American Revolution, Richmond did He was known as the Galveston Giant—a boxer who fought his way toward the first world heavyweight title held by an African-American.

But in , Jack Johnson became something else: a wanted man. Accused of violating the Mann Act, which forbade transporting a woman across state Malcolm X was an African American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and supporter of Black nationalism. Live TV. This Day In History.

History Vault. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Muhammad Ali. His courage remains an inspiration to anyone acting on principle in defiance of prevailing public opinion today. A pop culture icon on par with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, Ali also had a huge impact on the entertainment industry. He cut his first album in when he was still Cassius Clay, a spoken word record on Columbia called I Am the Greatest! Tooth Decay.

With his embrace of whimsical poesy, Ali brought a touch of gentility to the most brutal of athletic pursuits. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu.