There's a touching birthday tribute in the Telegraph.
I keep this picture on the staircase leading to my study.
He'd be in the middle of a speech, and someone would shout out "N****r draft-dodger" or something like that. And it upset him. Finally, he told me. "I ain't gonna do that no more." And I said to him, "Brother, all you gotta do is fight fire with fire. Next time you get up there and someone heckles you like that, put him own." And sure enough, we were speaking at Syracuse University, and somebody in the audience called him a draft-dodging n****r. And Ali said, "Ladies and gentlemen, you know, a long time ago when I was a little boy, I used to throw rocks at this donkey. And my grandma would say, 'Cassius, quit throwing rocks at that donkey.' I'd ask, 'Why, grandma?' And she'd say, 'Cause some day that donkey is gonna die and come back and haunt you.' " Then Ali stopped and looked out at the audience and told them, "Ladies and gentlemen, I know that my grandma was right, because I believe that ass is in here tonight." It brought down the house.
Belinda Ali, in Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times by Thomas Hauser.
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