The Champ.

During the 1970s the sport of boxing was Muhammad Ali, and Ali was boxing. At the beginning of the decade, on 20 June 1970, Ali's five-year jail sentence for his refusal to join the army was reversed, and in September of that year his boxing license was restored. Ali came back from his three-year exile having been stripped of his heavyweight championship but loudly proclaiming himself "The People's Champion." It was no idle boast: Ali's extraordinary popularity cut across racial lines. Many whites saw in Ali the reincarnation of Joe Louis, the great heavyweight champion who during his reign seemed to move easily and comfortably among white fans. Yet unlike Louis, Ali brought to his public-relations campaign an eloquence rarely seen among athletes practicing such a brutish sport. His desire to speak out on issues of race did not seem to pose a threat to...