“I think that it's true that this really was the first time in the 20th century that a Black man beat up a White man in the South without having to worry about getting lynched,” said professor Thomas Aeillo about the first Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry fight that took place on October 26, 1970.
Most boxing fans will know the broad details of the contest. It was Ali’s first fight back after his enforced three-year absence, and it took place in the unlikely location of Atlanta. The fight itself was not exceptional, Ali being declared the victor with the bout being stopped prior to the fourth round, Quarry having sustained a cut that would require fifteen stitches. However, the story of how the fight came to be is extraordinary and is told by Aiello in his new book, “Return of the King: The Rebirth of Muhammad Ali and the Rise of Atlanta.”
Given the violence of the time, the polarizing feelings about the Vietnam War, and the civil rights protests going on all over Georgia and the South more broadly, Aiello described it as a miracle that Atlanta would wind up as the location for Ali’s return from exile.
So why Atlanta? It had adopted a slogan, proclaiming itself to be “the city too busy to hate.” Aiello told BoxingScene: “Atlanta had always framed itself as wanting to make money before anything else. They were the ones who went out and courted venture capital after the Civil War. They are the ones who tried to get public investment and bring other companies in. Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines. Throughout most of what we know as the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ‘60s, they watched as their competitor cities like Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama – who wanted to be those next big cities – all those places got mired in all of these ugly, violent civil rights protests where cops were beating people who were just trying to get equal rights. Atlanta really saw an opportunity there. They trot out this slogan. They refused to have any of those violent reactions by police to protests. They tried their best to assuage black populations.
“Does that mean they're not racist? No, of course not. They're super-racist. But what they're trying to do is work with these other groups to at least mollify the public relations of it, to make Atlanta seem more progressive, at least by comparison to its neighbor cities. That is the reason why Atlanta becomes, really, the first place in the American South that gets professional sports in the 20th century. They're going to get a baseball team and a football team when none of the other places in the South would, because they're all still segregated. All of those teams have Black players. Atlanta is going to work on this. They know that if they want to be seen as an international city, they're going to need to cultivate a more progressive reputation and to collect these big businesses, big sports franchises and those kinds of things.
“One of those things is going to be boxing. This is a sport unlike baseball, that translates all over the globe. Everybody in America knows about the Atlanta Braves and they know baseball. The rest of the world doesn't really care, but they all care about the heavyweight champion. They realized that this is part of the internationalism of their project. They wanted not only to look like a big-time sports city, but they also wanted to say, ‘Look how liberal we are. We're letting Muhammad Ali come back. New York wouldn't do that.’”
Two very different politicians, representative of the time and place, played a major role in securing the Ali fight for the city, Leroy Johnson and Lester Maddox. Johnson was the first Black state senator in Georgia since Reconstruction and was the driving force behind making the fight happen. Maddox was Georgia’s governor and a highly contradictory and controversial figure.
“Johnson was a lawyer,” Aiello said. “He was a civil rights pioneer of sorts. But most of all, he was an opportunist and a businessman. Nobody would have ever accused him of being in the same vein of somebody like Martin Luther King or somebody like that. He was an opportunist who was trying to make money and get power. When he got a phone call one day saying that they were looking for a place for Ali to fight and they had been turned down by 87 different other cities in the United States, he said, ‘I think I can get that done.’
“The reason that Johnson became a state senator in the first place is because Atlanta, demographically, was changing. Middle- and upper-class white people were moving out of the city to the suburbs. It ended up creating a demographic change wherein, by 1970, Atlanta was a majority Black city – meaning that there were certain districts where White people just weren't going to win elections. It gave Black political power a real boost for the first time in a hundred years, and Johnson understood that he could take advantage of that.
“Since Atlanta is majority Black, even though Georgia is majority White, he can use his leverage and figure out a way to get Muhammad Ali back, get the credit for that, boost his political career and also make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from creating this fight. He also knows that Georgia, unlike most US states, doesn't have an athletic commission, which means it doesn't have to license fighters in the way that fighters in Nevada and New York have to be licensed. They can do it municipally.”
While Johnson may have been doing all he could to bring an Ali fight to Atlanta, Governor Maddox was less enthusiastic.
“Lester Maddox was, first of all, a dyed-in-the-wool segregationist,” Aiello said. “But he was also kind of a cartoonish, kind of clownish figure for those outside of the United States. He is a proto-version of [President Donald] Trump, this kind of hardcore right-wing dude who's also a completely absurd clown who doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time.
“He grew up as a restaurateur, owning a chicken restaurant in Atlanta. His claim to fame was that he would chase out potential Black customers with an axe. He got famous that way and ended up portraying that kind of bigotry into his political career. Even though he becomes governor of Georgia, Atlanta – his home city – did not vote for him. He lost Atlanta by a massive amount. Nobody in Atlanta saw him as a good thing for the state or for their wealth or for anything else.
“Just like modern Trumpism, he very much had a lot of these contradictions where he'd say one thing one day and something else the next day. Johnson actually got along with Lester Maddox. Leroy Johnson understood that to get what he wanted, he had to be friends with Maddox, so he worked with him. Johnson’s argument to Maddox was, ‘If you really believe in kind of laissez-faire capitalism and hands-off economics, you have to let people fight. You can't be in favor of taking somebody's livelihood away.’
“In private, thinking that through, Lester Maddox agreed and said, ‘Well, I guess you're right,’ and he gave it his stamp of approval. But then when he realized that all of his supporters were horrified that an anti-Vietnam, Nation of Islam guy was going to make his comeback in Atlanta, he had to change his tune. He declared the fight a day of mourning. He keeps the flags at half-staff. And, of course, that flag at the time still had the Confederate flag on it, the Civil War flag. While Muhammad Ali is making his return, there is a Confederate flag at half-staff flying over the arena where he fought. I mean, it is an absurd display because of Lester Maddox's grandstanding. He knew he couldn't stop the fight, but he knew if he didn't make a scene, his White supporters would be very mad at him. He was really just performing for them.”
Leroy Johnson was working hard to put all the pieces together to stage an Ali fight, because the major US boxing cities were steadfast in their refusal to grant Ali a license to fight. Aiello notes in his book that during the period of Ali’s suspension, New York's boxing commission had granted or renewed licenses to at least 244 men with criminal convictions ranging from extortion to second-degree murder. The hypocrisy did not end there. Ali’s criminal conviction was not overturned until June 1971, but Ali was granted a New York license prior to that Supreme Court decision. What was it that persuaded New York to relent and allow Ali to once again ply his trade?
Once it became clear that Ali’s comeback was going ahead in Atlanta, other venues were required for closed-circuit broadcasts to maximize revenue for what would be a massive event. Money, explained Aiello, was a major incentive.
“The only way that New York allowed venues to broadcast closed circuit broadcasts is if the fighters had a licence. Because [Ali] was going to fight in Atlanta and because promoters in New York knew they could sell out Madison Square Garden, even with him not actually being there – but just for the closed circuit of him coming back – they were able to lobby the New York State Athletic Commission. He got relicensed in New York not to fight, but just so that New York could make money off what Atlanta was doing. They sold out Madison Square Garden. It had nothing to do with his conviction. The people on the New York Athletic Commission had not changed in the past three years. It wasn't like a new administration had come in. No, it was just like, “Oh, we can make a lot of money at Madison Square Garden. OK, why not?” Las Vegas showed the fight, too. They had to license him. Once you've got New York and Nevada, you can pretty much fight anywhere.
“The other big thing that had changed, though, is that by 1970, the vast majority of the population had turned against the Vietnam War. A war that was never popular in the United States had become even more unpopular by the time that [Richard] Nixon became president. It was much easier for the commission to justify changing their stance, even without the Supreme Court overturning that conviction, because popular sentiment was very much against the war.”
Allegedly because of some of Ali’s public pronouncements about needing to fight again to earn money, early in his suspension from boxing, Elijah Muhammad suspended Ali from the Nation of Islam (NOI) and took away the former Cassius Clay’s Islamic name. Ali was distraught. However, during his exile, he then surrounded himself with businessmen who secured an income for him through commercial deals and speaking engagements. It was also these non-NOI people, who finally secured Ali’s boxing comeback, following an exhaustive effort. Once Ali was back boxing and earning serious money, he was quickly back in the NOI fold. Does Aiello think this another example of hypocrisy in the Ali comeback story?
“Hypocrisy is a good word for it. I think opportunism is another good word for it. The NOI coveted Ali because he was their most famous acolyte and he made them money. The reason Ali had to spend three years going around doing Broadway shows and giving lectures on college campuses was because the NOI had sucked all the money away that he had earned.
“It is generally assumed that the pretense that Elijah Muhammad used to suspend him from the faith was largely just because he wasn't making them money anymore and he wasn't as famous as he had been anymore. They didn't need him. It was very different on Ali's side. Ali worshiped them. He was a true believer in both the religion and in Elijah Muhammad. He was devastated.”
During his time away from the ring, Ali made conflicting statements as to his desire to return to boxing. His comments that he had no intention of fighting again seemed more like they stemmed more from his fear of repercussions from the NOI than a genuine acceptance of the end of his fighting career. Aiello reminds us of a wonderful quote from the Chicago Defender’s Doc Young, who wrote at the time that “the constant efforts of [Ali’s] lawyers and all his claims that he's retired and uninterested in fighting anymore sounded like a terrible piece of blues. The unfinished symphony of a man who didn't know whether he wanted to go or stay.”
Any doubts as to Ali’s true feelings about a comeback were put to bed when it became clear that Atlanta was serious. Leroy Johnson’s preferred option was that Ali would go straight in against reigning world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. Once it became clear that was not going to happen, the search was on for an alternative opponent. Jerry Quarry was not only the No. 1 contender, but he was also White – and that was why he was chosen. Staging Ali’s comeback in the Deep South would raise racial tensions irrespective of the opponent. Surely it would be pouring fuel onto the fire to intentionally stoke the racial aspect of the fight. Why add to the risk of violence?
“Because they wanted to increase the number of people whose eyes are on the fight,” argued Aiello. “They wanted that kind of interest. The big interest, of course, would have been Frazier. But when [Frazier trainer] Yank Durham said no, it was like, ‘Let's get a White guy, why not?’
“It wasn't just that Jerry Quarry was a White guy. He was also somebody who had criticized Ali for not going to the draft. And, frankly, ever since Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries, the Great White Hope had been the dominant narrative of American boxing. White champions were coveted more than anything else in the United States. The thought was, ‘Why not play on that?’ It has a long history in boxing. It certainly has a long history in the American South because of the racial problems that exist there. If Atlanta really wants to prove that it is this progressive mecca, why not take this grand symbol of the NOI and put him up against a White guy in a place with more Confederate monuments than anyplace? This is the home of “Gone With the Wind.” And it worked. It sold.
“There was a fear of the kind of riots or violent aftermath of Johnson-Jeffries. There was the discussion like, ‘We've been trying for years to stay out of race riots while Birmingham is burning down and everything else. If this starts, it will have ruined everything we've done for the last 20 years.’ As the fight got closer, there really were threats of violence. There were gunshots ringing out, and the Klan was making noise.
“The governor, of course, was being ridiculous as he was, and there were some people who had some second thoughts about whether this was the best idea. The police beefed up the detail. Everywhere Ali went, he had the Atlanta Metro Police Department, just tons of people around him. Even though he's hanging out in relatively safe places, there really was a fear that something might get out of hand.”
Before Ali had gone to Georgia, when he was still training in Miami, he received a package that was opened by a sparring partner that contained a headless black Chihuahua. Along with the note, “We know how to handle Black draft-dodging dogs in Georgia.” Ali’s life was full of drama, and the 1960s had been a violent decade, but beheaded dogs turning up in camp would be enough to deter many men. What was Ali’s reaction?
“He always played it straight. He never gave up that he was afraid or anything like that. I will say that he had commented a lot in the past about some of the uglier racial incidents that had happened in Georgia. He had always said that he was afraid of Georgia, that it was a scary place, and that nobody in their right mind would ever go be there. He knew very much what he was getting into, and I do think he was legitimately scared. There was one point when there were gunshots right over the house where he was staying, and they all had to duck down and crawl out. At that point, it becomes very real to him. It's no longer just, ‘I'm gonna go show these racists what's up.’
“I think what's interesting, though, is that the concern was coming largely from rural Georgia. Ali knew that Atlanta was a relatively safe place for him. Atlanta was a majority Black city. Even the White population that was there understood that this was going to make them money and make them look good. Atlanta was just a different world. What he was worried about was White people outside of Atlanta, which is where the Ku Klux Klan were and where a lot of those threatening notes were coming from.
“As long as he could get from Miami to Atlanta, he felt like he would be protected there. When he stepped off the plane in Atlanta, there was a police detail waiting for him, led by the first Black detective that they had on the force in Atlanta. All the city tried its best to shield him from a lot of the uglier stuff that was happening. The police themselves got hundreds of threats that Ali never received, that they never told him about because they didn't want to freak him out. They knew that if he backed out, this would all come crashing down like a house of cards and Atlanta would look like a joke.
“But he had already taken so many risks to get to this point. I think he saw this, very much, as part of his character arc, going from one moral stand to another by fighting a White guy in the South. I think he really saw it that way.”
Is it a surprise that the concerns over potential violence proved to be unfounded? Aiello thinks not.
“I'm not surprised by it,” he said. “Because of the changing demography of Atlanta and because of the 5,000 people that were at the fight, at least 4,200 of them were Black. And Black Atlanta took over the city, and this became a celebration of Black power. It became this whole thing. And most White people, especially White racists, were going to stay away from that.”
Way back in 1892, George “Little Chocolate” Dixon stopped his White opponent Jack Skelly in eight rounds in New Orleans. After that fight, Aiello writes in his book, that “every single state, including Georgia, banned White and Black fighters from fighting each other because it was so shocking to all the White people in that audience.” It would be another 78 years before “a Black man pummeled a white man in front of a large crowd of onlookers in the Deep South without facing retributive incarceration or the hangman’s noose.
“Right into the middle of it, here comes Muhammad Ali. If anybody could do it, it was him.”
