Muhammad Ali

January 17th 1942 - June 4th 2016

Probably the most impressive man I ever met at my time with Blackwell's bookshop chain, I am proud to say I shook his hand (twice!) interesting to reflect and recall there were people there who thought he shouldn't be doing a signing, for he wasn't an intellectual but a mere sportsman! I disagreed, even the second time when he had lost the power of speech, he still came and signed and as I gazed into those eyes and his hand appeared to envelope mine, he smiled and I was aware then I was still very much in the presence of greatness. 

RIP Champ.

Ali by Gordon Parks

  

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father… Shoot them for what? …How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”