Black is Best

The Riddle of Cassius Clay

De: Jack Olsen

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Jack Olsen’s 1967 book about Cassius Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali, was called one of the best sports biographies of all time by the editors of Sports Illustrated.

Despite being known as “the greatest” boxer of all time”, Cassius Clay became far more important as a global cultural icon and social activist than as a prize fighter. When he defeated Sonny Liston for the world's heavyweight championship in 1964, he was hailed by the press and public alike as the clean-cut kid who would restore wholesomeness to the world of boxing. Just three years later, he completely upended those initial expectations. The book details Clay’s transition to becoming a Muslim, his outspoken support of black power, his inflammatory statements about Vietnam and his controversial draft status which all contributed to the vilification of which he was subjected.

Black is Best puts the contradictory images of Clay into a single focus. Jack Olsen talked at length with those who have surrounded Clay -- his family, his first boxing coach, his trainer, his physician, the group of white businessmen who gave him his start and dozens of others, thereby allowing those closest to the champion to offer, through observation and anecdote, their own interpretations Cassius Clay. Olsen extensively interviewed and followed Clay which allowed him to provide a firsthand account of Clay’s life and puzzling personality.

What emerges is a character portrait that is an almost perfect distillate of many of the problems that confronted America. A confessed bigot, a part-time demagogue, pulled by so many opposing factions that he himself often seems confused about his real identity, Clay sought to develop his own ideals and his own conscience. That they stand in sharp variance from the standards of White America is inevitable, and it is only slightly less inevitable that they should conflict with the beliefs of many of his own race, indeed of his own family. But behind this public pose, behind the hundreds of thousands of words, pro and con, that have been written about Clay, there lies yet another human being, a troubled and sensitive young man filled with doubts and fears and private dreams. It is this Clay that Olsen ultimately reaches, the man as well as the symbol.

The award-winning author of thirty-three books, Jack Olsen’s books have been published in fifteen countries and eleven languages. Olsen's journalism earned the National Headliners Award, Chicago Newspaper Guild's Page One Award, commendations from Columbia and Indiana Universities, the Washington State Governor's Award, the Scripps-Howard Award and other honors. The Philadelphia Inquirer described him as "an American treasure."