Muhammad Ali’s family reflects on the champion boxer’s legacy 10 years after his death
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Muhammad Ali’s legacy extends beyond his right jab, world championships and Olympic gold medal to the heart and compassion he showed long after he left the ring, his wife Lonnie Ali said.
“He took boxing to every area you can imagine,” he told The Associated Press this week, ahead of its 10th anniversary. Ali’s death on June 3, 2016, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
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“Muhammad lived by this mantra: service to others is the rent we pay for our room on earth,” Lonnie Ali said during an interview at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. “He showed up every day with kindness and empathy for people in need.”
Ali, Known as the “Louisville Lip” He rose to prominence in his hometown as a trash-talking world champion boxer in the 1960s, and began speaking out on civil rights issues as his star rose. Having won the heavyweight title three times, he is considered the most famous and influential boxer of all time.
On Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of his death, the Ali Center is sponsoring a “Day of Mercy” to encourage acts of service and care. Lonnie Ali, who serves as the center’s lifetime director, said the hope is an expanding event each year that will highlight service and volunteer work.
He said the day would focus on one of the “core values that built Muhammad Ali” in an increasingly divided country.
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“We are at a point today where we have lost touch with our humanity and each other,” he said. “It’s causing fissures, not just in families and communities, but in this country. We’re becoming more and more polarized and segregated, and we’re kind of drawn to people who think like us, look like us, and aren’t really reaching out to them.”
He also called on political leaders to govern with compassion and drew attention to recent developments. Weakening of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the Supreme Court.
“We should always be thinking about how we can elevate a society, not how we can make it harder,” Lonnie Ali said. “We want equal representation in this country. You can’t have equal representation by denying people the right to vote, you can’t do that.”
But there is hope, he said, and he saw it in 2016 when the city of Louisville came together for a week to celebrate Ali’s life. funeral procession through the city and passed by her late husband’s modest childhood home near downtown Louisville. Former President Bill Clinton and actor Billy Crystal spoke at his funeral, and Will Smith, who played Ali in the 2001 movie, also carried the casket.
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The outpouring of love for Ali at his funeral in his hometown was broadcast live to millions of people around the world. Ali’s face ten years later US Postal Service honors stamp It shows its lasting effect for the first time.
“We’re talking about people who have traveled thousands of miles to get here, who have never met this man, have never seen him in person, but want to pay their last respects to him: kings, princes, presidents, heads of state, celebrities, sports figures,” Lonnie Ali said.
