Becoming Muhammad Ali

As the narrative turns to verse, Cassius says that his grandfather’s home feels “like a church” (25). Cassius and his brother, Rudy, make up the congregation, and they listen to the blues playing on Herman’s radio. His grandfather tells Cassius poems and stories, explaining both United States history and his own history. They all emphasize the importance of understanding who you are, where you’re headed, and where you’ve been.

Each stanza in this poem begins with “I am from” (28-29). Cassius thinks of his home and his city, imagining pink houses and sharing one small bathroom with his family (28). He is from Louisville, a place of baseball and the Kentucky Derby.

He descends from two other Cassius Clays in his father and in the man his father was named for—a white abolitionist named Cassius Marcellus Clay. He is “from slavery to freedom” (29). He imagines himself as made up of his father’s dreams and his mother’s hopes.

In this poem, Cassius describes his mother, Odessa “Bird” Clay. He says that she is constantly smiling and that she loves to cook (30). She is small physically, but he sees how big her heart is. She sings beautifully each Sunday at Mount Zion Baptist Church.

During Cassius’s birth, the doctors had to use forceps, leaving a small bruise on his cheek. The bruise caused him enough pain that, as a newborn, his cries caused the other babies in the newborn ward to cry too. When Odessa recounts this to Cassius, she says that he was probably crying out so that other Black babies would hear that it was time to stand up and be noticed in the world.

The next poem picks right up after the last. The bruise he received from the doctor, Cassius says, is the last one he ever let someone put on his face.

On March 14, 1943, when Cassius was one year old, he accidentally hit his mother in the face and knocked out her front tooth.

Cassius continues to meditate on his mother, who uses his full name—Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.—only when she’s angry. Other times, she calls him “Gee-Gee” (35). Cassius thinks that it foreshadows his future as a Golden Gloves champion.

Rudy is Cassius’s younger brother by two years. They are “inseparable—and our / parents’ brightest hope” (36).

Cassius turns his attention to introducing his father, Cassius “Cash” Marcellus Clay Sr. He is the opposite of his wife, standing six feet tall. He is an emotive man, often joking, singing, or yelling (37). He sometimes spends Saturdays drinking with his friends, not appearing again until Sunday morning. For work, he paints billboards and store signs, having done many in Louisville, and he enjoys his job. 

Cassius lists off some signs that his dad has painted, interspersing businesses with more political ones and showing that his father often must create signs like “Colored Waiting Room” and “Whites Only” (39). 

Sometimes, Cash arrives home on Sundays still drunk from the night before. Bird asks if he’s going to fix something that’s broken, and he ignores her, going to Cassius’s grandfather’s house. Cassius and Rudy go with him so they can spend time with their grandfather, listening to his stories.

When Rudy turned one, the Clays moved into a new house. There, Cassius and Rudy played with their pet chicken and their dog, Rusty. Cassius loved the vegetable garden with its snap beans and onions “that I loved to eat, / raw” (42).

Living in the West End provided a safe place for the Clays, where Cassius could grow up. It was “where / we played / and prayed / and went to school / and grew up” (43). However, every so often, they would “cross a line”—presumably a racial boundary between the predominantly Black and predominantly white neighborhoods—and Cassius would wonder why they couldn’t play there too. 

When Rudy was finally old enough that he and Cassius could play together in their neighborhood alone, they would usually go to Chickasaw Park. However, one day Cassius decides that they should go to Fontaine Ferry Park because it has amusement rides. He has never been there, even though it’s located right next to the West End.

He and Rudy tell Bird that they are going to their grandfather’s, which they plan on doing after going to Fontaine Ferry Park.

When they arrive, they see a “Whites Only” sign with two armed police officers, who ensure that they don’t enter (45).

In a short, one-stanza poem, Cassius recounts chopping wood with Granddaddy Herman the same day. His “sermon”—the story he tells—is one Cassius will never forget (46).

In italics, the poem details Granddaddy Herman’s sermon.

Herman explains that African American boys can play in Chickasaw Park, but they can never play in Shawnee Park or Boone Square. No matter how much they want to go to Fontaine Ferry Park, with its rides and attractions, they will never be allowed.

The third stanza is one line: “Boys, there’s two Louisvilles” (47).

There is a Louisville where it is safe to be Black and a Louisville where racism is so prevalent that African Americans are not welcome there. Small but obvious signs of discrimination permeate the white Louisville.

Granddaddy Herman ends by reminding the boys to remember who they are, who their family is, and where they come from.

Still in the past, Cassius tells Rudy he wants to be rich as they talk in the backyard about being famous. This, they think, will force the white patrons of Fontaine Ferry Park to let them in. They imagine what it would be like to be Chuck Berry, though neither can sing or dance. However, they both like to slap-box. They could become rich and buy the park “so that any kid / could get into Clay Park / and ride the rides” (51).

The sound of Bird’s voice interrupts Cassius and Rudy’s visions of the future, calling them to go to bed. Cassius, feeling sly, tells Rudy “DON’T MOVE” because there is a snake right next to his head (53). Rudy immediately jumps up and screams, running into the house. Rudy forgets about Fontaine Ferry Park, but Cassius never does.