Muhammad Ali, the self-proclaimed “greatest [boxer] of all time,” was originally named after his father, who was named after the 19th-century abolitionist and politician Cassius Marcellus Clay.
On PBS, Independent Lens” will air Muhammad Ali” – Monday, May 5, 2014, 10:00 p.m. ET — This documentary covers Muhammad Ali’s toughest bout, his battle to overturn his five-year prison sentence for refusing U.S. military service. The film traces a formative period in Ali’s life, one unknown to young people and neglected by those who remember him as a boxer but overlook how controversial he was when he first took center stage. Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and found himself in the crosshairs of conflicts concerning civil rights, religion and wartime dissent. This film zeroes in on the years 1967 to 1970, when Ali lived in exile within the U.S., stripped of his heavyweight belt and banned from boxing, sacrificing fame and fortune on principle.
