Ali the Activist
A Panel Proposal

This panel will focus on the dynamic national and international activism that made Muhammad Ali far more than a famous boxer. From resisting the draft to fight in Vietnam and returning to sports, to international diplomacy leading up to the 1980 US boycott of the Moscow Olympics, to the references to excessive force by dogs in histories of enslavement and in Civil Rights struggles, the legacy that Ali left transcended sports. This panel reconsiders how this pugilist expanded fighting far beyond the ring, from Louisville across North America, to multiple contexts in Africa, and beyond.