Editing Muhammad Ali (section)

==Early life==
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.<ref>{{cite web |last=Peter |first=Josh |date=July 11, 2016 |title=Why Muhammad Ali never legally changed name from Cassius Clay |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2016/07/11/muhammad-ali-name-change-cassius-clay/86956544/ |access-date=July 12, 2016 |work=USA Today |archive-date=July 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711220529/http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2016/07/11/muhammad-ali-name-change-cassius-clay/86956544/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|æ|ʃ|ə|s}}) was born on January 17, 1942, in [[Louisville, Kentucky]].<ref name="greatath" /> The elder of two sons, he was named after his father, [[Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Barber Can Relax Hair |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB32F2545452CEB&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |date=October 15, 1997 |access-date=September 4, 2009 |archive-date=October 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025011348/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB32F2545452CEB&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Timesobit>{{cite news |title=Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., Former Champion's Father, 77 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEFDA1230F933A25751C0A966958260 |agency=Associated Press |work=The New York Times |date=February 10, 1990 |access-date=September 4, 2009 |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031223019/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/10/obituaries/cassius-marcellus-clay-sr-former-champion-s-father-77.html |url-status=live }}</ref> who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] politician and staunch [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)|Cassius Marcellus Clay]]. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of [[Madagascar]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Egerton |first=John |author-link=John Egerton (journalist) |url={{GBurl|id=O6YFLYjAgcQC|p=134}} |title=Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South |publisher=[[LSU Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8071-1705-7 |page=134 |access-date=June 24, 2016}}</ref> He was a descendant of slaves of the [[antebellum South]], and was predominantly of African descent, with Irish<ref name="Great-grandfather emigrated from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36452554 |title=Muhammad Ali: Boxer's ancestral Irish town pays tribute after death |publisher=BBC |date=June 4, 2016 |access-date=June 4, 2016 |archive-date=June 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160607080346/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36452554 |url-status=live }}</ref> and English heritage.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/1810535.stm |title=Ali has Irish ancestry |work=BBC News |date=February 9, 2002 |access-date=August 5, 2009 |archive-date=June 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607104040/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/1810535.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Reitwiesner |first=Williams Addams |title=Ancestry of Muhammad Ali |url=http://www.wargs.com/other/ali.html |author-link=William Addams Reitwiesner |access-date=May 1, 2011 |archive-date=October 22, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022045918/http://wargs.com/other/ali.html |url-status=live }}</ref> His maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from [[Ennis]], County Clare, Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/muhammad-ali-irish-roots|title=Muhammad Ali's Irish roots|date=June 3, 2020|website=IrishCentral.com|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-date=December 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222211528/https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/muhammad-ali-irish-roots|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36452554|title=Muhammad Ali: Boxer's ancestral Irish town pays tribute after death|work=BBC News|date=June 4, 2016|access-date=June 22, 2018|archive-date=July 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727152023/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36452554|url-status=live}}</ref> The Irish connection has not be verified as there is no known Abe Grady who was born in Ireland in the Kentucky Census. The County Clare Heritage Centre, in Ireland, claims that an Abe Grady, from County Clare, emigrated to the United States in the 1860s, settled in Kentucky, married a Black woman, and one of their children was this John L. Grady, maternal grandfather of Muhammad Ali. No documentation of these claims has been found.<ref>http://www.wargs.com/other/ali.html</ref>
 DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Clay was a descendant of the former slave [[Archer Alexander]], the model of a freed man for the ''[[Emancipation Memorial]]'' and the subject of abolitionist [[William Greenleaf Eliot]]'s book, ''The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom''.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/10/02/dna-evidence-links-muhammad-ali-heroic-slave-family-says/ |title=DNA evidence links Muhammad Ali to heroic slave, family says |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=October 3, 2018 |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404082516/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/10/02/dna-evidence-links-muhammad-ali-heroic-slave-family-says/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

His father was a sign and billboard painter,<ref name="greatath">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Rafer |title=Great Athletes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnIAPwAACAAJ |edition=revised |volume=1 |year=2002 |publisher=Salem Press |isbn=978-1-58765-008-6 |pages=38–41 |access-date=July 24, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031223020/https://books.google.com/books?id=TnIAPwAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=mgcszma>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GzlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AOkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4588%2C3444376 |work=Spokesman-Review |location=(Spokane, Washington) |agency=Associated Press |last=Grimsley |first=Will |title=Muslims gull Clay, says mother |date=May 25, 1965 |page=14 |archive-date=March 15, 2025 |access-date=March 13, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250315211624/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GzlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AOkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4588%2C3444376 |url-status=live }}</ref> and his mother, [[Odessa Grady Clay|Odessa O'Grady Clay]], was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a [[Methodist]], he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudy (later renamed [[Rahaman Ali]]), as [[Baptists]].<ref name=mgcszma/><ref name="Hauser 2004 p14">{{Harvnb|Hauser|2004|p=14}}</ref> Cassius Jr. attended [[Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky)|Central High School]] in Louisville and was [[dyslexic]], which led to difficulties in reading and writing.<ref name="Eig">{{cite book |last=Eig |first=Jonathan |title=Ali: A Life: Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017 |date=2017 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1-4711-5596-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzjeDQAAQBAJ |access-date=July 24, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031223021/https://books.google.com/books?id=JzjeDQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He grew up amid [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]]. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one [[Racism in the United States#African Americans|because of his color]]. That really affected him."<ref name="HauserThomas">{{cite web |last1=Hauser |first1=Thomas |title=The Importance of Muhammad Ali |url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-rights-movement/essays/importance-muhammad-ali |website=Gilder Lehrman Institute |date=July 31, 2012 |access-date=June 5, 2016 |archive-date=June 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608035157/http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-rights-movement/essays/importance-muhammad-ali |url-status=live }}</ref> He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of [[Emmett Till]], which led to he and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. He once told his daughter Hana, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hampton |first1=Henry |author-link1=Henry Hampton |last2=Fayer |first2=Steve |last3=Flynn |first3=Sarah |date=1990 |title=Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s |page=[https://archive.org/details/voicesoffreedom00henr_0/page/321 321] |publisher=[[Bantam Books]] |isbn=978-0-553-05734-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/voicesoffreedom00henr_0/page/321}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Gorn, Elliott |date=1998 |title=Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ |pages=76–77 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06721-1}}</ref>