Free Republic

Archer Alexander’s fame came largely after his death. Depicted in bronze kneeling before President Abraham Lincoln, his story also received renewed attention recently amid recent calls for monuments connected to slavery and colonialism to be pulled down. In the wake of global anti-racism protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the U.S., such controversial monuments became the target of Black Lives Matter protesters across the world, including the UK and Belgium. In the U.S., statues of Confederate leaders and the explorer Christopher Columbus were toppled. In Washington, D.C., protesters made attempts to tear down the controversial Emancipation Memorial,...

Former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston is perhaps best known as the man sprawled across the canvas and looking upwards at Muhammad Ali in one of the most celebrated moments in boxing history. The immortalized photographs were taken at a small gymnasium in Lewiston, Maine, where Liston's rematch with Ali was famously held after being moved from Boston Garden amid fears of organized crime – a presence throughout most of Liston's life.

A boxing legend who referred to Caucasians as “white devils” and “crackers” along with the leader of a racist anti-Semitic black cult will be honored by the U.S. government if resolutions pending in Congress are enacted by federal lawmakers. The nearly identical measures, recently introduced in the House and Senate, aim to celebrate the “history and contributions of Muslims of the United States” and include controversial candidates that are clearly undeserving of the distinction. Among them are two key figures in the Nation of Islam, a political and religious movement well known for its racially divisive rhetoric. The group’s doctrine...

“A black man should be killed if he’s messing with a white woman.” This sentiment was uttered not in 1875 but 1975 — by a man with an airport named in his honor. This brings us to the effort to strip late actor John Wayne’s name from the airport in Orange County, California. Those advocating such point to what they consider “the sheer crudeness of the actor’s feelings about gay people, black people, Native Americans, young people and liberals,” as the Los Angeles Times’ Michael Hiltzik puts it. But my opening, eyebrow-raising quotation is what’s truly shocking here. Let’s be...

"In 1964, a young boxer named Cassius Clay ("the Louisville Lip") won an upset victory over Sonny Liston. Later that year, Clay changed his name from Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. to Cassius X, then to Muhammad Ali. Ali initially joined the nation of Islam (promoting "the Honorable" Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X) and refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War. In interviews, Ali said that he changed his name because "Clay was a white name" and "a slave name," while "Muhammad" and "Ali" weren't. Ali eventually left the Nation of Islam and became an orthodox Sunni Muslim, though still...

ALI: A lot of 'em got careers, working for and with their brothers, but you don't find 'em in no white man's office in downtown New York working behind secretarial desks. Too many black women been used in offices. And not even in bed -- on the floor. We know it because we got office Negroes who've told us this. So we protect our women, 'cause women are the field that produces our nation. And if you can't protect your women, you can't protect your nation. Man, I was in Chicago a couple of months ago and saw a white...

Erdogan was initially on the roster of speakers on the funeral — a list that includes a number of famous names, such as former president Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal. However, on Monday, Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell had said that two unnamed speakers had been added to the program, meaning that foreign guests Erdogan and King Abdullah II of Jordan would no longer be able to make an address. Gunnell told reporters that the two world leaders had been “gracious and understood.” But there were a number of suggestions that perhaps Erdogan had been removed from the list...

<p>Dave Chappelle is a man who is known for his controversial sense of humor and jokes, being well beyond “politically correct” by anyone’s standards. He’s not one to shy away from ANY topic… and you know, that’s sort of expected from comedians if you ask me. It’s either ALL OK or NONE of it is. You can’t have it both ways.</p>

The three-time heavyweight champ also told fellow Muslims during a mosque rant that “the so-called Negro is the original man and is superior to the white devil” and that he’d rather be with his own people than “blue-eyed devil white people,” JW reported. At a Cleveland mosque, the boxer said the American flag “represented death and destruction,” but the “Muslim flag” represents “life and prosperity, justice for all black men.”

Was this guy some type of hero?

So, The Won endorsed The Ton. Ho-Hum. Oh and  BTW, yes, The Ton is apparently under “criminal investigation” despite previous denials to the contrary. It’s no big deal, lots of Presidential Nominees have been under criminal investigation while running for…oh wait, no; they haven’t. Still no big deal, Barry is going to stand by her.In other news - if you are suffering from Muhammad Ali fatigue, it will all be over soon: The Greatest is being laid to rest today. Here, I think, is the best way to remember him - as Cassius Clay. In case you forgot or never...

Actor Will Smith and former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis will be among the eight pallbearers at Muhammad Ali’s memorial service Friday in Louisville, Ky. The legendary boxer died June 3 following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Other pallbearers at the service will include Jerry Ellis — brother of the late Jimmy Ellis, who was Ali’s former sparring partner and former world heavyweight champion — and several relatives and close friends. Smith received an Oscar nomination for playing the title role in the 2001 movie “Ali.”

The death of boxing great Muhammad Ali cost American Muslims perhaps their greatest hero, a goodwill ambassador for Islam in a country where their minority faith is widely misunderstand and mistrusted. "We thank God for him," Talib Shareef, president and imam of the Masjid Muhammad mosque in Washington, told a gathering of Muslim leaders who honored Ali in Washington on Saturday, a day after he died in a Phoenix hospital at age 74. "America should thank God for him. He was an American hero." From the turmoil of civil rights and black Muslim movements of the 1960s to the darkest...

 “It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound sand. I beat people up.” – Muhammad AliThe braggadocios young Muhammad Ali, nee Cassius Clay, mellowed with age and illness butt he will nevertheless always be known for his swagger.I, however, am partial to the equally great boxer butt less bodacious Joe Louis - Joe Louis and Alithe first black Heavyweight World Champion. He was always described as a gentleman. (full disclosure: my uncle was the “Brown Bomber’s” commanding officer in WWII and his promoter for awhile afterwards) The Brown Bomber with Uncle Lou, 1946Boxing is a lot like politics,...

The guard was polite but unyielding. “I’m sorry; you can’t go any further.” At which point, Muhammad joined us. The guard repeated what he’d just said. “Mr. Ali; this man and this woman don’t have security clearance. I’m sure you understand how these things work. They simply can’t go any further.” And Muhammad was understanding -- “If they don’t go, I ain’t going.”

Muhammad Ali's birthplace of Louisville, Kentucky, is paying tribute Saturday to the late boxing legend, who died Friday in Arizona at 74. At a ceremony at the city's Metro Hall, Mayor Greg Fischer said flags on government buildings would remain at half-staff until Ali has been laid to rest.

Joe Bruno on Boxing – Muhammad Ali is Not a Hero. Muhammad Ali passed away Friday night, June 3, 2016. I wrote the article below around the year 2000. I got to know him fairly well in the 1980’s, when I was Vice President of the Boxing Writers Association. He was a real friendly man, and we had several nice conversations about what I have written below. Still, his death doesn’t change what he was, and what he did early in his career. It is with a sad heart that I stand by what is written below. It’s just the...

No link as yet. TV stations have broken to news that Muhammad Ali had died.

Muhammad Ali has been placed on life support — and his family fears that it “likely won’t be long until he passes away,” according to a report. The boxing legend was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a respiratory issue on Thursday and insiders tell Radar Online that his loved ones are now rushing to his side because it appears his condition has worsened. “He needs every bit of fight he’s got left to survive,” a source told the website. “Doctors are telling the family that it likely won’t be long until he passes away.”

So the media has decided to drag out Muhammad Ali to denounce Trump as a bigot. That's a great plan. Let's ask Martin Luther King about it. "When Cassius Clay joined the Black Muslims and started calling himself Cassius X he became a champion of Racial Segregation and that is what we are fighting against. I think perhaps Cassius should spend more time proving his boxing skill and do less talking," Martin Luther King said. How "Islamophobic" of King. Of course Ali's Black Muslim group at the time, The Nation of Islam, was a vile racist and anti-Semitic organization....