Originally Posted by
bradlee180
The Great Muhammad Ali...
...changed his name in a somewhat-misguided protest, I think.
"Clay was my slave-name; I am no longer a slave." - Muhammad Ali
RE: The slave-owner's family name was given to his slaves as a sign of his ownership of them.
So Cassius Marcellus Clay junior did away with the slave-name and was given the name Muhammad Ali when he switched religions to Islam.
However...
Ali's father was Cassius Marcellus Clay senior.
Cassius Marcellus Clay senior's grandfather grew up on the property of the original Cassius Marcellus Clay (b 1810- d 1903), a white man and aristocrat and one of the great EMANCIPATIONISTS of history!
The original Cassius Marcellus Clay was born into one of the wealthiest families of land-owners/slave-owners in the state of Kentucky.
In Clay's decades-long crusade to end slavery, Clay's life was threatened many, many times.
Guy had friends in high places too including being a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and relatives that were members of the the Senate and he was related to a Governor too.
This man sacrificed so much in his quest to end slavery, and it was a quest that he was in for the long haul: Clay first joined the Abolitionist Movement in about 1831 or thereabouts, and saw it through to the end of slavery in America in 1865.
Sheesh, you'd think Muhammad Ali would've been proud to have carried this man's name.
The name, Cassius Marcellus Clay, is a symbol of the fight to end slavery, of fighting for liberty, but Ali simply said it was his slave-name and did away with it, and took a Middle Eastern name instead.
If Ali wanted to pay homage to his African roots, he should've went African, not Middle Eastern.
Why Islam by the way too?
If Ali was shooting for getting back to his African roots, why not go with a traditional African religion instead?
There's actually more Christians in Africa than there are disciples of Islam.
Christianity and Islam are the two dominant religions in Africa, but both religions spread into Africa from elsewhere.
Christianity has been in Africa longer than Islam has too.
Why didn't Ali go with a traditional African religion if he was shooting for African roots and heritage....?
About that name-change though: :)
An 1800s man spends much of his life fighting the very fabric of America, taking a very unpopular stance at the time at great physical peril to himself, all to free the slaves and give them liberty and what does he get?:
Ali dismisses that Great name as a slave-name and says "I'm no longer a slave."
Thankless bastard, eh?!
Perhaps Muhammad Ali should have taken a Celtic name instead and got involved in the religious wars (Protestants and Catholics) there too in honor of his Irish roots as well; there's lots of white blood in Muhammad Ali.
Ali's great-grandfather, Abe Grady, was an Irish immigrant from Ennis. That's why Ali's beloved mother, Odessa Grady Clay, looks so white; she took after her Irish grandfather.
Certainly a lot more white blood in Ali than there is in say Joe Frazier for instance...
Now there's a real black man through-and-through, and a proud man, and a man who grew up pickin' cotton in the racially-segregated deep South.
Smokin' Joe and his family definitely had it a helluva lot harder with the poverty and racism than Ali's relatively easier, more comfortable upbringing in Kentucky.
Then Joe becomes Champ and is the victim of further racism by a member of his own race: Ali.
"Lite-Brite, almost white!", I hear ya, Joe...
Yep, Irish.
Why not Muhammad Grady then...or Sheamus Ali or Muhammad O'Reilly instead or some such like if he wanted to change his name to honor his heritage?
In addition, the Irish were also treated very harshly in Europe; the English didn't think of them as being human.
The English were in control, but they let thousands upon thousands of Irish basically starve to death during The Great Potato Famine. The English could've helped, but said why?
The Irish didn't get much better treatment in their early days in America either. About 70 thousand Irish were slaves in America, but they didn't make for as good a slave because the Irish were too much trouble.
Yeah, black people had it hard in America in the late 1800s, but so did the Irish. And also the Native Americans of course.
All were perceived as second-class citizens, viewed as not even being human; it's funny that they all started inter-marrying.
HAH HAH HAH !
I really get a kick out of that for some reason.
:lickish:
Civil rights?
Ali fought the gov't for about 4 years from 1967 to 1971 and ultimately won.
The original Cassius Marcellus Clay fought the gov't and the system and the very fabric of 1800s America for over 30 years and ultimately won.
Cassius Marcellus Clay/abolitionist, also had one other thing in common with Cassius Marcellus Clay/Muhammad Ali:
In 1894, at about 83 years old, Clay was boinking a 15 year-old named Dora Richardson whom he married.
It didn't last...
;)
.
