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You are here: Home / Kentucky / Champs

Champs

June 5th, 2016 by Sallie Bingham in Kentucky, My Family 2 Comments

Muhammad Ali is dead.

This great figure, whose eight-times great-grandfather was born into slavery in Kentucky and given the name of his owner, Cassius Clay—a prominent white politician—and whose descendants carried that name and its dire associations until the heavy-weight champion forced the world to rename him, bears away with him an heroic legend of which we have great need.

Born in Louisville, in poverty, he early attracted the attention of young white sportsmen because of his evident talent in the ring. One of those young white sportsmen was my older brother, Worth.

Expertise is always thrilling... the crucial ingredients are the same: talent, persistence. And heart.

The group decided to help Clay (as he was known them) finance his early training. They told him to meet them at their men’s club in Louisville, which they knew full well had never admitted a black man (or a Jew or a woman).

Denied entry at the front door, the young boxer waited in the parking lot until one of the group came down and handed him a check.

Decades later, when Louisville had to recognize, grudgingly, its native son’s importance—there had been a great deal of criticism of his opposition to Vietnam—the city “fathers,” as they were, decided to rename Walnut Street in his honor.

Boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) meeting with his promoters, the Louisville Sponsoring Group, in Louisville, Kentucky, 1963. (Photo by James Drake/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images). Worth Bingham is third from left, holding a cigar.

Boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) meeting with his promoters, the Louisville Sponsoring Group, in Louisville, Kentucky, 1963. (Photo by James Drake/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images) Worth Bingham is third from left, holding a cigar.

It was done. But the men’s club, which stood on a corner of Walnut, refused to change the name on its writing paper—and for all I know, it has never changed it to this day.

The history is long of gifted black athletes, actors and singers being given their professional start through the generosity of white men. I suppose some assuaging of guilt was involved; one of the early cracks in the wall of racism was the statement that “Of course there are some, a few, who have talent…”

The city has to some extent made up for this early history in the building of the Muhammad Ali Center, an extraordinary, interactive collection of artifacts, film clips, photographs and news stories teaching a new generation the facts of the champion’s life.

Expertise is always thrilling. I feel the same thrill when I see my granddaughter, Iona Motta Ellsworth, ride her beautiful horse. A few days ago, at her high school graduation, she was radiant with happiness, and her spirit, talent, and determination may carry her to a place on the Olympic Equestrian Team, which has been her goal for several years.

It may seem a stretch to compare this beautiful blond young woman with a black athlete, but the crucial ingredients are the same: talent, persistence. And heart.

Iona Graduation

[For more on my brother Worth and Ali, please read this archival Sports Illustrated piece entitled The Eleven Men Behind Cassius Clay]

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In Kentucky, My Family Louisville Iona

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. Sarah Gorham says

    June 5th, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    I can’t believe how much she’s grown up. Extraordinary.

    Reply
  2. Patricia Carpenter on Facebook says

    June 12th, 2016 at 8:59 am

    zzGod put him at the exact moment on our nation’s history. This was no coincidence of nature.❤

    Reply

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Watch Sallie

Taken By The Shawnee

Taken By The Shawnee

July 6th, 2025
Sallie Bingham introduces and reads from her latest work, Taken by the Shawnee.
Visiting Linda Stein

Visiting Linda Stein

March 3rd, 2025
Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.

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Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

November 8th, 2024
This event was recorded November 1, 2024 in Taos, NM at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop by KCEI Radio, Red River/Taos and broadcast on November 8, 2024.
Taken by the Shawnee Reading

Taken by the Shawnee Reading

September 1st, 2024
This reading took place at The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2024.

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