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Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali

    Black and white photo. Cassius Clay, soon to adopt the name Muhammad Ali, is seated behind two Fruit of Islam guards. He looks toward the speaker podium where Elijah Muhammad addresses an audience. Elijah Muhammad wears a male Muslim prayer hat. Clay wears a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie, without a hat.

    In 1964, Cassius Clay (middle row, second from right) broke with Malcolm X to bond with Elijah Muhammad (at podium) and the Nation of Islam (NOI). Elijah gave Clay the name Muhammad Ali. Following his meteoric rise as the world heavweight boxing champion, Ali was lionized by the antiwar generation for his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. military, at the cost of his boxing title. For millions of Muslims worldwide, Ali was the face of resistance to American imperialism. Over the next several decades, Ali’s beliefs evolved from the NOI to orthodox Islam.

    1964
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    Photo by Stanley Wolfson, World Telegram & Sun, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division