Gordon Parks Foundation Opens "Muhammad Ali: American Champion" Exhibit

Noted photographer Gordon Parks had many sessions with Muhammad Ali -- and many of the photos were never published.

The Gordon Parks Foundation had been planning an exhibit of photos from sessions in 1966 and 1970 for months -- and "Muhammad Al: American Champion" opened Monday, just three days after the three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died.

 Ali, the heavyweight boxing legend who began his career as the polarizing Cassius Clay before becoming an admired worldwide champion of religious freedom, political activism and racial equality, died in a Phoenix hospital late Friday night. He was 74.

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• The World Remembers Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest'
• AND: Where Cassius Clay Discovered Islam

During his 21-year boxing career, he went from Clay — a scrappy and taunting fighter whose footwork and machine gun-like firing of his gloves confounded his opponents — to Ali, the punishing puncher and polarizing warrior who used his fame to promote a varied number of social issues.

His four-year break from boxing as he fought a prison sentence for refusing to enter the draft during the Vietnam War made him a hero of the anti-war counterculture movement of the 1960s and 70s. And his unapologetic embrace of his Muslim faith, and especially his racial pride, challenged a white establishment in sports and in culture at large.

Life Magazine sent Gordon Parks -- their first African American staff photographer and writer -- to do a cover story on the outspoken boxer in 1966, and then again four years later.

Parks, born into segregated Kansas in 1912, documented American culture from the early 1940s until his death in 2006, with a focus on civil rights, poverty, race relations, and urban life. He was also the director of the 1971 hit movie, "Shaft."

The foundation is dedicated to the life and work of the famed photographer, musician, and artist. 

This exhibit of his Ali photos runs through Sept. 24. The exhibit space is at 48 Wheeler Ave., Pleasantville, NY.

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Image via Library of Congress

Patch Editor Marc Torrence contributed to this report.