“America must never forget that when a cop and an inner city kid talk to each other, miracles can happen,” said Lonnie Ali at the public memorial service for her husband, Muhammad Ali.
The Greatness of Ali began after he had a talk with Louisville police officer Joe Martin, who taught him to box. That was the start of the man known to the world as “the Greatest.”
Ali died Friday, June 3, 2016, at the age of 74. The world watched as Ali’s life was celebrated in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., June 9-10, 2016. Two services filled to capacity and a procession through the streets of Louisville were a send-off fit for the king he was.
A traditional Muslim service was held Thursday at Freedom Hall with a capacity crowd of 14,000 attending. The procession and Interfaith Memorial Service were held Friday.
Although Ali touched the lives of so many throughout the world, the people of Louisville knew what others did not know. The procession route included a stretch of Broadway Street. In the earlier days, after Ali won his fights, he loved to come back to Louisville. He drove a big recreational vehicle west on Broadway, sometimes very fast, fast enough that the police would pull him over. But when they looked inside and saw it was the Champ, they would just smile and tell him to slow down. It is that incident and so many others that are unique to Louisville. Ali was loved by his hometown and he always made it clear that he indeed loved his hometown.
Because of his bragging, he was known to many as the “Louisville Lip.” He called himself “the Greatest.” When others talked about his bragging, he would often say, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
The City of Louisville backed him up in a big way, showing the world that he was “the Greatest” when more than 100,000 people lined the streets for 20 miles to say their final goodbye to the Champ. As the procession, which originated from A. D. Porter & Sons Funeral Home-Southeast, passed, the crowd chanted, “Ali, Ali.” Some began throwing flowers onto the windshield of the hearse carrying their hometown hero. Children were running alongside the hearse throwing jabs in the air. People were running up to the hearse to kiss the roof.
As the cars traveled down Broadway, Hana Ali, the champ’s daughter, tweeted, “We just left the funeral home and are in the car now following our beautiful father en route to his final resting place, as his reoccurring dream is realized. When he was younger he said, ‘I used to dream that I was running down Broadway in downtown Louisville, Kentucky and all of the people were gathered in the street waving at me and clapping and cheering my name. I waved back, and then all of a sudden I just took off flying. I dreamed that dream all the time. . .’”
When the procession made it to the little pink house on Grand Avenue in west Louisville, the heart of the African-American community, those waiting wanted to touch the hearse. Ali’s children lowered the windows of the limos and began shaking hands with the people. The pink house on Grand Avenue is where Ali grew up.
One could only imagine the reaction of Ali’s children when they saw the many thousands who lined the streets of Louisville to pay final respects to their father.
The procession made the final leg of the journey when it turned into Cave Hill Cemetery, where Ali was buried. Thousands of rose petals lay at the entrance as spectators lined the entrance while Ali was taken to his final resting place. It was a sight that Louisville will never see again.
The Public Memorial Service at the KFC YUM Center was filled to capacity with 15,000 people attending. Celebrities came to say their final goodbyes, including former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Orrin Hatch, both speakers on the program. Others were director Spike Lee, former NFL great Jim Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Whoopi Goldberg, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, boxing greats Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and soccer star David Beckham. Unable to attend because of his daughter’s graduation, President Barack Obama sent Valerie Jarrett as his representative. Minister Louis Farrakhan, boxing promoter Don King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were also in attendance.
The three-hour interfaith service featured speakers from various religions. The service began with prayers from the Quran from Ali’s Muslim faith and the moderator was an imam from Memphis. Two rabbis, a catholic priest, the leaders of two Native American tribes and a Baptist minister were all on the program.
The first speaker, the Rev. Kevin W. Cosby, senior pastor of St. Stephen Church in Louisville, referred to Ali as a “silver-tongued poet” who led African-Americans to a new identity. He brought the crowd to its feet when he said, “Before James Brown said ‘I’m Black and I’m proud,’ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m Black and I’m pretty.’”
Cosby said Ali “dared to love Black people at a time Black people had difficulty loving themselves . . . And he loved us all and we loved him because we knew he loved us, whether . . . you lived in the penthouse or the projects… or came from Morehouse or no house.”
Hatch (R-Utah), a friend to Ali for 28 years, said Ali was truly the Greatest. “He moved with agility and punched with Herculean strength,” said Hatch. “He was an extraordinary fighter and a committed civil rights leader.” Hatch also called Ali “an effective emissary of Islam.” He said Ali showed us all the path of greatness.
Hatch said Ali was humble. He said Ali told him, “God gave me this condition (Parkinson’s) to remind me always that I am human and that only He is the greatest.”
Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, daughter of the late Malcolm X, gave a very tearful tribute to Ali. She has been a resident of Louisville for the past six years. “Having Muhammad Ali in my life somehow sustained my dad’s breath for me just a little while longer—51 years longer until now,” she said as she fought back tears.
Speaking on behalf of Obama, Jarrett said, “Ali was . . . loud and proud, an unabashedly Black voice in a Jim Crow world.” She said, “Muhammad Ali was America. Muhammad Ali will always be America.” Jarrett said the world embraced Ali because he was the best of America.
Comedian Billy Crystal said Ali always referred to him as his brother. He said, “He was funny, beautiful, the most perfect athlete you ever saw, and those were his own words … He was so much more than a fighter. He made all of our lives a little bit better than they were. He taught us that life is best when you build bridges between us, not walls. He is gone, but he will never die. He was my big brother.”
Clinton said Ali was not imprisoned by a disease. He recalled Ali’s carrying of the Olympic Torch. “He was going to make those last steps, no matter what it took,” Clinton said. “The flame would be lit, no matter what, the fight would be won.”
Clinton said, “In the end, besides being a lot of fun to be around, I will always think of Muhammad as a truly free man of faith. And being a man of faith, he realized he would never be in full control of his life. It is the choices that Muhammad Ali made that brought us all here today, in honor and in love. We should honor him by letting our gifts go among the world as his did.”
Cosby summed it up best. Talking about Ali and his importance to the Black community, he said, “He dared to love America’s most unloved race . . . While he was the property of all people, let us never forget, he is the product of Black people, and their struggle to be free.”