LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Like his lightning jabs, word of Muhammad Ali’s death quickly spread around the world. An outpouring of emotions poured into his beloved hometown in Kentucky.
For a remarkable week in June 2016, Louisville was the focus of ceremonies honoring the three-time heavyweight boxing champion and humanitarian known as The Greatest.
Eight years later, the Muhammad Ali Center has opened an exhibition about those heartbreaking days. It contains photos, a three-dimensional screen and a video documenting the events and emotions.
Putting it together was bittersweet but important, said curator Bess Goldy.
“We have not yet acknowledged Mohammed’s passing in our exhibitions and we felt this was a very important story to tell as part of his story and as part of his legacy,” she said before the opening.
Visitors will first see an acrylic panel surrounded by more than 1,000 silk roses — symbolizing the flowers that admirers threw on the hearse as Ali’s funeral procession made its way to Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, said Goldy, the Ali Center’s senior manager of curation and collections. . An inscription on the panel recounting those days says Ali’s death “sent ripples across continents, transcending borders and cultural divides.”
There is a striking black and white photo of Ali, taken in the 1990s. Ali’s own words are shown, including his comments that he would like to be remembered “as a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him.” A video shows footage of news reports of his death at the age of 74 and of his memorial service. Photos capture the sheer size of the crowd that paid their respects. One taken in the days after Ali’s death shows a marquee in his honor at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where Ali had his historic first fight with Joe Frazier.
Ali’s wife, Lonnie Ali, said Louisville was “the perfect host for the world that week.”
“From the moment the plane landed in Louisville, marking Muhammad’s final return home, the entire city of Louisville wrapped their arms around us with love and support,” she said in a statement.
Within hours of his death, makeshift memorials formed at his childhood home and the downtown cultural center that bore his name. Mourners flocked to Louisville. Days later, an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets as the funeral procession passed, as chants of “Ali, Ali” rang out. A star-studded memorial service followed his funeral. Comedian Billy Crystal praised Ali as a “tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty.”
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg remembers the celebration of Ali’s life as “one of the most powerful, impactful and culturally significant events” ever to take place in the city.
“Those who took part in the celebration will remember it forever,” he said in a statement.
Greenberg, a prominent local businessman at the time, said people can now relive those days — or experience them for the first time — through the exhibit.
Located near the banks of the Ohio River, the Ali Center features exhibits that pay tribute to Ali’s immense boxing skills. But its most important mission, the report says, is to preserve its humanitarian legacy and promote its six core principles: spirituality, giving, belief, trust, respect and commitment.
The new exhibit, titled The Greatest Remembered, will be permanent, with plans to keep it fresh by rotating in new items, Goldy said.
While the exhibition was in progress, Keith Paulk was nearby watching a replay of Ali’s fight with Leon Spinks as Ali won the heavyweight title for the third time. The Florida man was on his way with a friend to view the solar eclipse in New York state. His stop at the Ali Center was like a pilgrimage in honor of Ali.
“Man, he was a hero if there ever was one,” Paulk said.
Paulk, 73, said he saw the memorial service on TV and called it a perfect tribute to Ali.
“The world stood still for his fights,” he said. “The world stood still even longer when he was finally gone and we realized we were in the presence of excellence.”
Lonnie Ali, also a native of Louisville, said she hopes the exhibit shows people how the outpouring of affection for her husband “brought not only this city together, but the world.”
“This exhibition is a way to continue to share and say thank you that week of love, memory and unity,” she said. “It is also an opportunity to show everyone that we can come together for the good of all.”