The Butterfly Who Stung: The Great Story of Muhammad Ali.

On April 28, 1967, Muhammad Ali arrived at the Armed Forces Induction Center in Houston, and made his way through a sea of reporters with a smile. He had big news: he wasn’t going to serve in the U.S. armed forces. He refused because of his religious views and because he believed the Vietnam War was erroneous. He had spent the previous few years speaking out against the war. “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,” he had said in 1965. “The real enemies of my people are right here, not in Vietnam,” he told crowds the following year.

This decision came with consequences and would change the trajectory of his remarkable career. Ali’s boastful persona was iconic within sports and pop culture. He was quick to remind the world that he was “The Greatest” of all time and was known for his quips and stinging remarks. But his influence extended beyond the boxing ring and he used his wit in larger battles, becoming a black activist, humanitarian, and philanthropist.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky to to a billboard painter father and a mother who worked as a domestic maid.

His boxing career started when he was 12, when his bike was stolen from his home. He…