The Trials of Muhammad Ali Page #2

She was an African-American

lawyer and a very good one.

He had little regard for money,

except he wanted to have it to spend.

When the group had him,

the top rate

for income tax was 91%.

It's now 35.

So the more he made,

the more he paid to the government.

To solve that problem,

the group paid

for everything...

so he could just concentrate

on his boxing.

Cassius,

do you believe that a fighter...

actually tries to

kill another fighter?

Does he get that vicious?

Do you get that vicious?

Every time I enter a ring,

I intend to down him.

And if he should fall,

he falls.

Well, that's everybody's

intention or we wouldn't go in.

We had a fund that we fondly jokingly called

"The Orange Juice Fund."

When he was in Florida,

we would get the bills...

and they would be

in the range of, say,

2,000 gallons worth

of orange juice.

And we knew that he wasn't drinking

2,000 gallons of orange juice.

But the entourage managed to get

a little one way or another.

We could not foresee the

difficulties that would lie ahead...

as far as military service and,

of course, the Muslim affiliation.

This is the corner where

I met Cassius Clay in 1961.

I'm standing on the corner of Second

Avenue and Sixth Street in Miami, Florida.

I was selling the Muhammad

Speaks newspaper...

to propagate

the faith of Islam.

We tried to clean

our people up.

We were trying to be the best

citizens that American had.

People trying to be righteous.

We didn't smoke.

We didn't use drugs.

We respected our women.

We train our children to be the same way.

This is what he saw.

Cassius Clay holler

across the street at me.

He say, "Hey, brother,

why are we called Negroes?"

Why are we called Negroes?

"Why are we blind,

deaf and dumb?"

Why are we deaf,

dumb and blind?

Why is everybody

making progress...

and yet we lag so far behind?

I say, "Hey, man. You hip

to the teachings then."

He say, "Yeah, man."

Well, I took it on myself

to program him, we might say,

keep after him to become

a Muslim in the Nation of Islam.

But I wasn't the first one

he heard it from,

'cause he heard it mainly from that

record Minister Farrakhan put out...

"White Man's Heaven

is a Black Man's Hell."

When the slave

master wanted to have some sport

He would heap on our parents

cruelties of the worst sort

Burn them at stake

Hang them on trees

His ears were deaf

to our parents' pleas

Oh, my friend,

it's easy to tell

White man heaven

is a black man hell

When Cassius

Marcellus Clay heard the song...

"A White Man's Heaven

is a Black Man's Hell"...

which is still true

to this very day...

then he wanted to become

a part of a movement...

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