June 15, 2016
Page 5
Muhammad Ali’s funeral procession passes as onlookers line the street Friday in Louisville, Ky. (AP photo)
Ali! Ali! The Greatest Laid to Rest
Champ honored
as fearless man
of principle
(AP) - The Greatest was laid to
rest in his hometown Friday after
an all-day send-off that was a lot
like Muhammad Ali himself - se-
rious at times, but also exuberant,
bracingly political, and funny.
Ali made one inal journey
through the city he adored via a
ist-pumping funeral procession
through the streets of Louisville.
The burial was followed by a
star-studded memorial service
where the boxing great was eulo-
gized as a brash and wildly char-
ismatic breaker of racial barriers.
“He was a tremendous bolt
of lightning, created by Mother
Nature out of thin air, a fantastic
combination of power and beau-
ty,” comedian Billy Crystal said
in an address that had the crowd
of about 15,000 laughing at nearly
every turn.
The more than three-hour me-
morial capped nearly a full day of
mourning in Louisville for Ali, the
three-time heavyweight champion
of the world who died last week at
74 after a long battle with Parkin-
son’s disease.
An estimated 100,000 people
holding signs and chanting, “Ali!
Ali!” lined the streets as a hearse
carrying his cherry-red casket
made its way past his childhood
home to Louisville’s Cave Hill
Cemetery, where a private burial
service was held.
“He stood up for himself and
for us, even when it wasn’t popu-
lar,” said Ashia Powell, waiting to
catch a glimpse of the funeral pro-
cession for the man the city once
knew as Cassius Clay, before he
converted to Islam and shed what
he called his slave name.
The public memorial at the KFC
Yum! Center was packed with ce-
lebrities, athletes and politicians,
including former President Bill
Clinton, Sen. Orrin Hatch, direc-
tor Spike Lee, former NFL great
Jim Brown, Arnold Schwarzeneg-
ger, soccer star David Beckham,
Whoopi Goldberg and Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar.
In eulogies that were some-
times laced with political barbs in
this presidential campaign season,
speaker after speaker paid tribute
to Ali as a fearless man of prin-
ciple, someone who went from
being one of the most polarizing
igures of the 20th century to one
of the most beloved, a source of
black pride and a symbol of pro-
fessional excellence.
Kevin Cosby, pastor of a Lou-
isville church, told the crowd that
Ali “dared to afirm the power and
capacity of African-Americans”
and infused them with a “sense
of somebodiness.” He likened Ali
to such racial trailblazers as Jes-
se Owens, Rosa Parks and Jackie
Robinson.
“Before James Brown said,
‘I’m black and I’m proud,’ Mu-
hammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and
I’m pretty,’” Cosby said. “Blacks
and pretty were an oxymoron.”
Rabbi Michael Lerner, a politi-
cal activist and editor of the Jew-
ish magazine Tikkun, brought the
crowd to its feet four times with
a iery speech in which he re-
ferred to Ali’s refusal to be drafted
during the Vietnam War - a stand
that cost him his boxing title.
“Ali stood up to immoral war,
risked fame to speak truth to pow-
er. The way to honor him is to be
like him today,” Lerner said, rail-
ing against anti-Muslim bigotry,
C ontinued on p age 15
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