The Ongoing Trials Of Muhammad Ali

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• As The Trials of Muhammad Ali makes clear, Ali remains an inspiration all these years later.

In need of a break from the utter madness of politics in Chicago, I went to see The Trials of Muhammad Ali, Bill Siegel’s brilliant documentary, which should have been nominated for an Academy Award but wasn’t.

I saw it over the weekend at the Cultural Center. By chance, it’s playing tonight at the ShowPlace Icon (150 W. Roosevelt) at 7 PM.

In 1971 he was vindicated when the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-0 to overturn the conviction on a technicality. As one former Supreme Court clerk explains in the movie, it was a carefully manufactured ruling designed to free Ali and put the whole case behind him.

It turns out that Muwakkil knew Ali back in the day, when he was editor of Muhammad Speaks. In fact, he and Ali spent some time together in Jamaica back in 1974. Man, I’d like to see a documentary about that.