Episode 01: The Church of Mama Bird
Episode Description:
What did it mean for young Ali (then Cassius Clay) to grow up Black and Christian in the segregated South? We’ll hear from Ali’s family members, childhood friends, and religious leaders as we explore the religious landscape and tensions of Ali’s childhood.
People:
Lonnie Ali, wife of Muhammad Ali for 30 years (1986-2016) and co-founder of the Muhammad Ali Center .
Maryum Ali, Muhammad Ali’s oldest daughter and first-born child.
Muhammad Ali (archival audio), the Champ.
Dr. Edward J. Blum, professor of history at San Diego State University and author of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America.
Reverend Dr. Wilbur S. Browning Sr., senior pastor since 1994 of Centennial Olivet Baptist Church, the church where Muhammad Ali was baptized.
Odessa Lee “Mama Bird” Grady Clay (archival audio), the mother of Muhammad Ali.
Cassius “Cash” Marcellus Clay Sr. (referenced), the father of Muhammad Ali.
Dr. Henry Cobbs, childhood friend of Muhammad Ali, attended Sunday school with Ali for a time at First Virginia Avenue Baptist Church.
Robert “Bob” Coleman, childhood friend of Muhammad Ali, attended Virginia Avenue Colored School and Central High School with him.
Jonathan Eig, journalist and biographer, most recent biography is Ali: A Life.
Besty Jane Alexander Greathouse (referenced), paternal great grandmother of Muhammad Ali born during the American Civil War, died just a few months after Ali became the Heavyweight Champion and revealed to the public his conversion to Islam.
Imam Zaid Shakir, Islamic scholar, Muslim college co-founder, and a spiritual advisor to Ali in his last ten years of life, helping with his Islamic funerary preparations.
Malcolm X (archival audio), former Nation of Islam minister, human rights activist, once close friend and mentor to Ali.
Places:
Broadway Temple AME Zion Church, home church for nearly 100 years (since 1879) of Ali’s paternal great grandmother, Mrs. Besty Jane Alexander Greathouse. Designed by the legendary African-American architect Samuel Plato.
Centennial Olivet Baptist Church, the church where Muhammad Ali was baptized; where his mother was president of the Pastor’s Aids; and where his father painted a mural, over the baptistery, of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.
First Virginia Avenue Baptist Church, church where Muhammad Ali sometimes attended Sunday school and where he questioned his Sunday school teacher about images that portray divinity being represented as white people.
Events:
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
The assassination of Medgar Evers.
Artifacts:
Muhammad Ali and his brother, Rahman Ali, in 1963, escorting their paternal grandmother, Mrs. Betsy Jane Alexander Greathouse, to a celebration of her 99th birthday. Hosted at her church of 84 years: Broadway Temple AME Zion.
A sampling of the religious murals painted by Ali’s father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., in Louisville.
Living in Jim Crow America.
The fire in Ali’s Chicago home on the day Malcolm X was assassinated.
Ali in Rome during the Olympics.
Muhammad Ali’s (then Cassius Clay) I Am the Greatest album, first released in 1963.