Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments M uhammad Ali once said in response to the many people who had taken credit for his success, particularly his father, “Who made me is me.” There is a part of me that feels similarly in regard to this book, but my wiser self prevails when I think about all of the people who have helped me to arrive at this point. I would like to thank the Interlibrary Loan Staff at the University of Kansas’s Watson Library for tirelessly helping me find the sources that constituted the brunt of the raw material that I shaped into this book. Sonoma State University provided me with a summer research grant that funded a trip to Louisville, and the National Endowment for the Humanities allowed me to participate in a summer seminar that sowed the seeds for this book. The excellent staff at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville also provided key support. Several people took time out of their busy schedules to be interviewed for this book, and I am grateful to them. They are Bob Moses, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Ernie Terrell, Gordon Davidson, Thomas Hauser, and Robert Lipsyte. Thanks also to Thomas Morrissey for sharing a great story about Ali’s role in averting a riot in Chicago, and to the tag team of Chris Beckmann and Dave Tegeder for convincing me that the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower rather than that of Rutherford B. Hayes made for the best comparison to the Cassius Clay–Archie Moore bout. Of the many people affiliated with Temple University Press who worked on this book, three deserve special mention. I thank series editor Amy Bass for her unflinching support of this project. I thank Gary Kramer for his marketing creativity. I thank Nanette Bendyna for her careful copy editing. x Acknowledgments I have had many teachers in my life, and some of them stand out for their creativity, hard work, and willingness to devote attention to me when I needed it most. Francis F. Wilson Elementary School in Rockville Centre, New York, has been blessed with many excellent teachers, but I would like to mention three who changed my life. Judy Birnbaum, my first-grade teacher, met my tempestuous personality with kindness and always found ways to challenge my intellect when the curriculum would not suffice. Judy Lewis, my fourth-grade teacher, taught me how to respect learning environments without having to give up my individuality and increased my self-worth tremendously . Charlie Busk ran something called the Learning Center and always opened his door to me, teaching me new ways to learn when the classroom just wasn’t working out. There were two professors during my undergraduate career at Union College in Schenectady, New York, who deserve special thanks for the life-changing lessons they so selflessly bestowed upon me. During my junior year, I found myself forced to take a history seminar in order to meet my major requirements. The only available one was a course in race and historical memory, which at the time seemed more to me like a problem than an opportunity. Despite my closed-mindedness, it wound up being the single most influential intellectual experience I ever had, jump-starting what would become a paradigmatic shift in my awareness of the world. A. T. Miller, thanks for teaching me that the political is personal. I never fancied myself an actor but somehow wound up taking four theater courses with Barry Smith while at Union College. A maverick seemingly able to understand the core of someone’s being in a matter of moments , Smith showed me a better way to live and act, how to care about the world beyond myself, and that the personal is political. I thank him for that. I don’t know anyone who has ever said that graduate school was a fun experience . It was an enormous challenge getting a doctorate in American Studies at the University of Kansas, but there was one man who shepherded me through the process, giving me untold support and guidance in myriad ways that are still becoming evident to me every day of my life. This man is David Katzman, my dissertation adviser and mentor. Nobody, with the exception of my parents, has taught me more in my lifetime. I cherish my relationship with him. His selfless dedication is the primary reason I was able to achieve my goal of becoming a college professor, and I will never forget or take for granted all that...