2 Chapter 1 Life in Louisville

Chapter 1 Life in Louisville He became world famous with the name Muhammad Ali, but he was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. "We called him 'GG' when he was born," said his mother, Odessa Clay. "He used to say 'gee, gee, gee, gee.'" She said that Cassius was running and talking before most other babies. And he was strong. He accidentally hit his mother in the mouth once, loosening one of her teeth.

In 1944, Cassius's brother, Rudolph, was born. Cassius looked out for his baby brother, and he would sometimes even try to stop his mom from spanking Rudolph, who was also known as Rudy.

Their mother raised them as Christian, attending a Baptist church. "Every Sunday, she dressed me up, took me and my brother to church, and taught us the way she thought was right," Cassius said later in his life. When the boys were a bit older, their father, also named Cassius, would bring them along on his job painting signs. When they weren't working with their dad or at school, the boys played

together. They loved playing marbles and touch football. Cassius was a very fast runner. He would sometimes race the school bus, running alongside as his friends cheered him on.

Together the two boys were full of energy. Friends called them the "Wrecking Crew," since something always seemed to break when they were around. Cassius was very outgoing, happy to laugh and talk with anyone. "By the time he was four, he had all the confidence in the world," his mother remembered. The brothers could find plenty to do in their own neighborhood, but they knew not to go to certain parts of Louisville. In America in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in the South, black and white people often did not mix. Many white people felt that blacks should be separate from whites. Southern states like Kentucky even had laws that said black people could not swim in public pools or go to school with white children. Cassius grew up in a divided America, and it was something he never forgot. In 1954, when Cassius was twelve years old, he and his friends rode their bikes to Louisville's Columbia Auditorium to see the Louisville Home Show.

THE FIRST CASSIUS M. CLAY THE FIRST CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY WAS A WHITE MAN BORN IN 1810 IN KENTUCKY. THOUGH HIS