Thirty minutes after all of his other organs failed, Muhammad Ali’s heart continued to beat, pumping blood to body parts that had previously shut down. His daughter, Hana Ali, shared her emotions via Twitter the moment the legendary boxer and humanitarian passed away.
“Our hearts are literally hurting. But we are so happy daddy is free now. We all tried to stay strong and whispered in his ear, you can go now. We will be OK. We love you,” she said.
Ali’s heart didn’t only beat for the sport of boxing; his heart also lived in his dedication to world peace, civil rights, religious freedom and ending world hunger, among others. As a child, the self-proclaimed “greatest” boxer of all time was born to a poor, working class family in Louisville, which was considered the segregated South at the time. Ali experienced racism firsthand growing up, and those occurrences impacted him long term.
“I remember one time when Cassius was small,” said Odessa Clay, Ali’s mother. “We were downtown at a 5-and-10-cents store. He wanted a drink of water, and they wouldn’t give him one because of his color. That really affected him. He didn’t like that at all, being a child and thirsty. He started crying, and I said, ‘Come on; I’ll take you someplace and get you some water.’ But it really hurt him.”
Standing up for what’s right
Ali joined the Nation of Islam in 1964 after meeting civil rights activist Malcolm X, who was also once part of the Islamic Nation. Soon after, Cassius Clay publicly announced his name change to Cassius X and then finally, Muhammad Ali.
Three years later, Ali was drafted into the military during the Vietnam War but refused induction into the armed forces due to his religious beliefs. Although Ali knew the consequences of his decision, as he sacrificed millions in prize money, he chose to stand faithful to his religion. Due to his actions, he was arrested for committing a felony and stripped of his world boxing title and license. The U.S. Supreme Court found Ali guilty of violating civil service laws and sentenced him to five years in prison. Ali remained free while appealing his conviction and spent much of his time speaking at colleges on Black consciousness and anti-war movements, as he was not able to box during the time. In 1971, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the boxer returned the to ring shortly after.
Philanthropic efforts
Just three years after his retirement in 1984, Ali announced he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system affecting movement that, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, more than one million Americans suffer from. After his diagnosis, the philanthropist raised millions of dollars for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. Dr. Abraham Lieberman, who diagnosed Ali with Parkinson’s, stayed close with him until his death.
“He took terrific pride in this center. When he would come here, his eyes would light up,” Lieberman told local news outlets.
In addition to his support for Parkinson’s research, Ali supported organizations and events such as the Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish Foundation and others. In 1966, he participated in an emotional moment in sports when he lit the Olympic cauldron at the Summer Olympics.
During retirement, Ali traveled the world helping those in need in places such as Mexico, North Korea, Cuba and Afghanistan, and even was present when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa. Outside of traveling, despite the pain Parkinson’s disease can bring, the boxer could be found completing public service in soup kitchens and hospitals.
In 2005, Ali opened The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, a museum and cultural center built as a tribute to the boxer.
“I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given,” he said. “Many fans wanted to build a museum to acknowledge my achievements. I wanted more than a building to house my memorabilia. I wanted a place that would inspire people to be the best that they could be at whatever they chose to do, and to encourage them to be respectful of one another.”
Ali was chosen as the United Nations Messenger for his public service work. He was also awarded various recognitions, such as the Lifetime Achievement award from Amnesty International, the President’s Award from the NAACP and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2005, among others.
“In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him — the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston,” President Barack Obama said.
“I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was — still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.”
Obama added, “Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again, a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.”
Ali once said, “I’ve always wanted to be more than just a boxer, more than just the three-time heavyweight champion. I wanted to use my fame, and this face that everyone knows so well, to help uplift and inspire people around the world.”
Ali’s recipe for life
What would you like people to think about you when you are gone?
“I’d like for them to say,
He took a few cups of love;
He took one tablespoon of patience,
One teaspoon of generosity,
One pint of kindness;
He took one quart of laughter,
One pinch of concern,
And then he mixed willingness
With happiness.
He added lots of faith,
And he stirred it up well.
Then he spread it over a span of
A lifetime, and he served it to
Each and every deserving
Person he met.”
Source: muhammadali.com.
