Ali, who died from respiratory disease. Much to the surprise of people who thought he would come home from the hospital. People from kentucky are getting their first chance to remember him. Louisville mayor greg fisher is expected to speak shortly there in louisville, kentucky. This obviously hits them very hard. They consider him to be obviously their Hometown Hero of sorts. He has done so much outside the boxing ring when youre talking about civil rights and about humanitarian causes. And people are certainly recognizing that. I think even more than theyre looking at his success in the boxing ring today. Thats very true. A long history of battles. It has been said that his greatest battle perhaps was the battle against the United States government on the issue of his draft evasion charge that went all the way to the Supreme Court but at the end of the day, his greatest battle most will say was again parkinsons, which he fought for 30 years. Youre looking at a small memorial. We understand that his children were there with him and that there were a lot of tears but there was a gentleman who was with them who came on cnn a couple of hours ago and said they have the same spirituality as their father and they are, in a sense at peace. The threetime world heavyweight champion leaving behind an incredible legacy, not just in the ring but as an outspoken fighter in the 60s, a man who embraced his faith and never stopped using his celebrity for good. Joining us now, cnn there were going to stop because it appears that the mayor of louisville, kentucky is now walking up to the microphones. We expect him to give some fairly short remarks. Good morning, everyone. Mayor greg fisher here. Im honored and privileged to be the president and ceo of the muhammad ali center. Today we are here to honor the greatest of all time, muhammad ali. As you all know, muhammad was much more than a boxer, much more than a sportsman. He was a great humanitarian, he was a great ambassador for the city of louisville and for the world. Today for many of us is a sad day, but its also a day to celebrate the life of a great human being. I agree, thats right. So in that regard im going to turn the podium over to our great mayor, greg fisher, mayor of louisville, kentucky. Thank you. Honor guard, present the colors. Now is youre seeing the honor guard presenting the colors. We can barely see it it because we dont have a second camera there right now. This city has enshrined the home of muhammad ali, as a place for tourists to go and catch up just a bit of his legacy. Were hoping to hear from the mayor some information, too, about the funeral that will be held and the burial. We know that he will be laid muhammad ali will be laid to rest there in louisville and that mayor greg fisher there is ordering flags being flown at half staff. We understand on all the government buildings and that they will remain at half staff until muhammad ali is laid to rest. But this is just some of the protocol and the reverence that is given. Muhammad ali lived a life so big and bold that it hard to believe every man could do everything he did, to become all the things he became in the course of one lifetime. This man, this champion, this louisvillian ended as a humanitarian of piece, a champion athlete who end amnesty internationals Lifetime Achievement award, the president ial medal of freedom, sportsman of the century. He was cofounder with his beloved wife, lonnie, of the muhammad ali center, which promotes hope, expect and understanding here in louisville and around the world. A man of action and principle, he was a Conscientious Objector to the vietnam and willingly paid a price, taking a stand that forced him out of the ring for over three years during the primetime of his career. A devout muslim, an interfaith pioneer, he took the name muhammad ali in 1964 and advocated for understanding and peace among people of different faiths. He was, of course, threetime heavyweight champion of the world, a young, handsome fighter with swagger like the world had never seen. He intimidated opponents outside the ring and dominated them inside the ring. Like when he predicted he would beat sonny liston in 1964. Made it happen and shouted i shook up the world, a winner of the olympic gold medal in rome, 1960, a graduate of louisvilles Central High School class of 1960. He was a 12yearold boy whose red bicycle was stolen in front of a gym about a mile down 4th street and told Police Officer joe martin that he wanted to whoop whoever took it. And martin said, you better learn to box first. Muhammad ali was a boy who grew up a the 3302 grand avenue, about three miles that way. He liked to eat hot dogs and play clue with his brother rudy in a house thats now a museum. And before that he was a newborn babies, cassius marcelous clay jr. Born to cassius and odessa clay. Imagine that boy looking around the room at the louisville general hospital, not knowing the life that awaited him, the life he would make, the world he would shake up and the people who would inspire. And like you, i am absolutely one of those people. Muhammad ali belongs to the world but he only has one hometown. The louisville lip spoke to everyone, but we heard him in a way no one else could, as our brother, our uncle and our inspiration. And i am so grateful that i had the chance to to know him and see how he leveraged his fame to share his message of love, peace and compassion. What the champ would want us to do right now is to spread that same message, follow his example and live by the same six Core Principles that he lived by confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect and spirituality. Id like to close with muhammads words, which carried just as much grace and power as his fists ever did. This comes from his book the soul of a butterfly, reflections on lifes journey. It it doesnt matter whether youre a muslim, a christian or a jew. When you believe in god, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love god, you cant love only some of his children. He believed passionately in the need for us all to keep our eyes, our minds and our hearts open so we can keep learning from each other. As he said, my soul has grown over the years and some of my views have changed. As long as im alive, i will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done. We all remember that incredible moment in 1996 when the champ held that burning torch in his trembling hand and lit the olympic flame in atlanta. And now he has passed that torch to us. While there can only be one muhammad ali, his journey from grand avenue to global icon serves as reminder that there are young people with the potential for greatness in the houses and neighborhoods all over our city, our nation and our world. There is no limit to what our kids can do if we help them realize their full human potential. [ applause ] and there is no excuse for us to do anything less than our best to help them find that greatness in themselves. Thats how we become champions. Muhammad ali has shown us the way. Today we, his fellow louisvilleans join the billions of lives he touched world wide in mourning his passing, celebrating his legacy and saying thank you, muhammad, for everything youve given to your hometown, your country and your world. To close our ceremony and honor of life of muhammad ali, the Louisville Metro Police will now present the colors of the United States of america and will lower the flags in tribute to muhammad ali. Thank you, everyone. Now you see the flag at half staff. You really felt the reverence of the moment. We would be remiss in not mentioning that little boy with the very colorful hair and his hand at his forehead in salute for the moment. And the mayor of louisville, greg fisher, summing up the hometown roots of muhammad ali, saying in part he graduated from louisville Central High School, class of 1916, which was by the way the same year ali won the olympics in rome and mentioning also the house on grand avenue that they have memorialized and i think the quote that sort of seals it for me there, muhammad ali belongs to the world but he only has one hometown. Yeah, very special to the folks that are there. And also how solemn the moment is because you couldnt hear anything in the crowd of the people who were there watching and honoring. It is so quiet and you just take that moment in. Right. Now, were going to go to andrew young, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations and chairman of the andrew young foundation. Hes on the phone. So thank you very much for joining us, ambassador. You knew muhammad ali well. Can you tell us how you found out about his passing and give us some sense of whats going through your mind this morning. Well, actually i dont think muhammad ali will ever leave us. I havent seen him for a few years but i stayed in touch with his wife, lonnie. She is also an unsung hero in this because while the whole world loved muhammad, nobody took care of him like his wife, lonnie. When he came down to atlanta to light the torch for the olympic games, we were trying to keep it a secret and he wanted to get a haircut and i wanted to bring a barber to the hotel. He insisted on, no, come on, take me to the barber shop. I took him to one of the big barber shops in atlanta, and i remember him stopping at every chair, taking a picture with every man, woman and child in the place. It was a barber shop and beauty shop. And he sort of held court for an hour before he got his hair cut. Well, he was magnificent. Even though he was weak then, he held that torch very steady, as he held high the torch of freedom and justice all his life. When he and Martin Luther king actually had the same attorney and back in 1967, 66, martin was struggling with his questions on the war in vietnam. I think many of us felt we ought to stick with civil rights and not get involved in the war, but i think that the fact that muhammad went ahead and took the plunge also helped Martin Luther king say that this is something that he had to oppose also. Can we tease that out just a little bit more, mr. Young. We talk so much about the sports legacy of muhammad ali, which is enormous, but theres a civil rights legacy that goes along with it. And you were there. So can you kind of give us a sense of your place of it was a human rights legacy. He loved everybody, and i think he was the first one to probably aggressively internationalize boxing. And made americans he made as an American Sports hero, he made everybody in the world love america. And with the rumble in the jungle and the thriller in manila, nobody in 1960s, 70s had heard of those places, and yet he focused the world he fo s focused america on his word leadership role. So he had a profound political significance in politics. Now i have to go back and say when he was sort of outcast, it was atlanta that gave him the right to fight again. And its interesting but the person you think of Lester Maddux as a racist, he was the one who worked with senator Leroy Johnson and the boxing commission to allow muhammad ali to have his fight in atlanta, i think it was in 1971. And so he was all we always kind of felt close to him. He was a muslim and we were christians, but that never became a conflict. And it was the quote that the mayor from louisville made that, you know, everybody thats gods child has to love all of gods children. And he was certainly exemplaifid that. There was no place in the world where he could go where people didnt love him and where he didnt love people. For people who are watching and dont remember or dont know, we have you chyroned as the former u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, but it it is also important to point out that you are a wellknown former mayor of the city of atlanta. Were you here back in those days at that time when muhammad ali was moving towards the fight with jerry cory, which would bring him back into the ring after the i was Martin Luther kings assistant before i was mayor and ambassador, and it was as Martin Luther kings assistant that and with chauncy estridge who was his lawyer on alabama and he was muhammads lawyer on the case with the draft. I knew them all very well and was involved in those cautions. Far from being antiamerican, they were very proamerican. They were for the best that america could be. And america we now know and i learned at the United Nations the vietnamese came to me to stop help me stop them from being invaded by china. And i have been to vietnam, and americans are very well loved on the vietnamese peninsula. There was never a need for a war there. I think that muhammad ali realized that out a general humanitarian sense but dr. King realized he knew when the buddhist a very much pro vietnamese buddhist. He also knew thomas mertin, the Roman Catholic priest that knew vietnam very well and felt this was not a good war for us to fight. And he bore a great burden in price. I think the world would have been so much better if muhammad ali had been allowed to continue fighting and been able to be the kind of global ambassador with portfolio from the United States government that he became without any portfolio. He represented god and gods children everywhere in the world, and he loved everybody. And god is love. And yet everybody knew him as an american olympian and as a world champion, as a citizen of louisville but also a citizen of the world. Hes one of my favorite people and but i still think that we should never forget that all the world loved him but only one person stuck by him for the last 40 years and that was his wife, lonnie. Lonnie has been mentioned several times this morning by several people talking about how devoted and loyal she was to him and how he could not have gotten through hes last year certainly without her. But he weve also been listening to many of his quotes, and one that struck me as i was listening to you talking was when he said hating people because of their color is wrong. It doesnt matter what color does the hating. Its just plain wrong. You had the opportunity to have many personal conversations with him. Did he ever say anything to you that will stay with you as long as you live and that will shape the way that you live your life . It wasnt what he said, it was what he did. We could walk down the streets of atlanta together. I walked down i went to tokyo with him once when we were trying to buy a toyota plant for minority dealers for a group in the u. S. And anywhere in the world he went, people came up to him, he picked up little children and embraced them, he was friendly, he was outgoing, he was never too busy to share a smile or a hug with anybody anywhere in the world. He had never been to africa and he went to zaire, the federal republic of the congo and he took over the country literally. And he learned the language and he walked down the streets and he cheered with the people. And he was just the quintessential ambassador for peace, love and the unity of all of gods children, whatever race, creed, color or religion they may be. Mayor andrew young also a former u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Great to talk to you again. Thanks for coming in on the phone this morning. Okay, thank you and god bless you. Thank you, sir. You as well. Listen, when we come back, were going to take you back live to louisville, kentucky. The home of muhammad ali, ryan young is there. Hes talking to the mayor, as you just heard. Were going to get more information about that and hopefully learn more about funeral and Memorial Services that are yet to be planned. Stay close. Headache . Motrin helps you be an unstoppable kind of mom. When pain tries to stop you, motrin works fast to stop pain. Make it happen with motrin® liquid gels. Also try motrin pm to relieve pain and help you sleep. When they thought they should westart saving for retirement. Le then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. This gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us arent prepared for retirement. Just start as early as you can. Its going to pay off in the future. If we all start saving a little more today, well all be better prepared tomorrow. Prudential. Bring your challenges. One spot on the map that is really feeling the loss of muhammad ali is his hometown of louisville. They have lowered the flags at half staff and will remain so until he is laid to rest. This is one of those moments, when you see a little boy, green hair or not, when you see a little boy saluting, holding that hand to his forehead, can just gives you a moment, doesnt it . Yeah. And it shows you a little bit about how this individual who many knows has been around, spans the generations. He goes from very old to baby boomers and even those who were not alive at the time that muhammad ali was fighting know him through the history books. And will continue to do so. Not to mention the fact, which weve already talked about this morning, muhammad ali was a man who seemed to have an incredible picture of children. And i think thats why that picture in that moment was so profound. We do want to get to ryan young who is live in louisville, kentucky with the mayor. Good morning, ryan. Reporter good morning. You were talking to so many people just about what muhammad ali meant to the city. Give me just your deep impact for what kind of role he had in the city. Well, he was a champ that belonged to the world, as i said, but he only had one hometown. We looked at him as one of us. We saw his perfections, his imperfections but what we always saw was this drive or br bragadocio. He loved to do tricks and love to do magic. The greatest pick he ever pulled, he didnt want to be the biggest athlete, his goal was to to be the biggest humanitarian and to do that, he had to be the biggest athlete of the century. And how do you pull that off. Back then it was so different. Speaking about the generations of change, you see this Multinational Group of people come out to celebrate his life, how does that stand out to you . Were a great global city here and grounded in the value of compassion. This is what were about and what the champ was about as well. He leaves a legacy in the ring, theres no question about that, but the real legacy is the values that he represented and how he wants to us live going forward. His passing right now, we hated we knew this day was going to come. But for us here in our city and around the world, the question is what do we do . How do we take up his values which was about inclusiveness, respect, dignity for everybody. Talk about that 12yearold kid he wanted to fight somebody because his bike got stolen and turned himself into a champion, you also used the remarks to say every kid should have a chance to be a champion. What do you think that center does here in louisville to help that out . We have all kinds of things going on with our safe and healthy neighborhoods, the ali center is right in the middle. The rumble man center. We understand that everybody has to have a pathway to success. As we look around cities all over the country and see young men and young boys Walking Around say, im the greatest, we have to say maybe you are, there is greatness in side of everybody. But what the champ would all say is i got up earlier and i put in the work. It want just swagger but he was the hardest working man in athletics. What do you think happens in the city when everybody sort of shows up to pay their respects to the champion snp. There lab halo over the city and this aura of love and connectedness will see the light shine inside of everybody, just like the champ did and events like this when they bring people together around connectedness, love, compassion. We see the goodness inside of people. Thats who people are. Its not a world of divisiveness, a world of hatred. Its a world of joy and love. We need to celebrate that and talk about that as fellow human beings. Thats how were going to get ahead in this world we live in. Its a different conversation than what we hear all the time. I want to show the front page of paper this morning and get your thoughts on this that they put the greatest on that. How do you think they did with the front page . That right there, thats my first memory of him, i was 6 years old saying who is this guy and the buzz in the community and the buzz with my parents about this guy, cassius clay, this guy saying how great who is but he makes it happen. Its one thing to say it and its another thing to follow through. And later in his life, him being the kind old soul, gentle soul that he was. Thank you for taking the time. This picture is in barber shops all across the country. This is something very iconic. You hear the mayoror talk about bringing people together. Thats the idea here. Thats one of the great things weve seen so far, people talking about how he United People and so now we know that theres a new museum here where you can go to his birth home and thats just opened up in the last two weeks or so so people will be able to go down there as well. Obviously people are still trying to process what happened here with the passing of ali. I was thinking about what the mayor said and one of the quotes from muhammad ali is its not bragging if you can back it up. And he could back it up all the time. He did, didnt he. Please stay with us. Keup is better for your skin than wearing no makeup at all . Neutrogena® cosmetics. With vitamins and antioxidants. Now with foundations in shades for more skin tones. singing you wouldnt haul a load without checking your clearance. So why would you invest without checking brokercheck . Check your broker with brokercheck. I use whats already inside me to reach my goals. 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Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney failure. With trulicity, i click to activate whats within me. If you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar numbers with a noninsulin option, click to activate your within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. Where worldclass chefs meet topnotch nutritionists. Prime cuts of meat. 25 grams of protein. Bold flavorful sauces. And savory mouth watering sides. Its the perfect balance of delicious and nutritious. Making it just the right fit for you. Stouffers fit kitchen meals. This is fit. The greatest there, the threetime world heavyweight champion leaving behind such an incredible legacy, not just in the ring here, as an outspoken advocate for rights and who used his celebrity to do some good. Joining us, Marc Lamont Hill. Hes a professor at Moorehouse College and on the phone is senior political analyst david gergen, who served as president ial adviser for nixon. David, if you were with the Nixon Administration around 1971 or so, would you have passed through the white house about the time muhammad alis issues on draft evasion were getting resolved. Is that true and was there any did you come into contact with any of that controversy . I met him a few times along the way. Of course he was wonderfully respected as a boxer, but life was not all sweetness in life for him. He had many struggles and he climbed into the ring not on against boxers like sonny liston but he also to also climb into the ring against the u. S. Government and amazingly he won there, too. The draft was one of those examples. He was essentially convicted and then had to take it through the courts as weve heard earlier and his conviction was overturned. But as a result of that, joe, he was out of the ring for basically three years, and those were in many ways his prime years. So he paid a price for it. But i he was much more controversial in those days because from changing from cassius clay to muhammad ali, not everybody accepted that the country was divided over it, some people didnt recognize the chan change. With the draft issue, some people didnt accept it. Hes become much more iconic and has become this beloved figure, but life could often be rough for him. Marc lamont hill, i want to bring you into this conversation because david gergen talking about the controversy that was, but we are living in a world that is filled with controversy right now. Help us understand the legacy that this man leaves behind. Where do you think his most important work was done . Well, his most important work was taking public stands when they were wildly unpopular and not worrying about that, instead realizing he would be redeemed by history, not by his critics of the day and not by his supporters of the day. In 1967 when he opposes the war in vietnam, when he says i will not enter this war, this war is not for me and those people over there in vietnam were not my enemy, people called him a coward. We know that was not true. He wasnt going to be holding a gun or being on the front line. It would have been an easy job, it would have been a cake job and a job that made him even more popular and wealthy. But he said on principle based on his training and the teachings and internally of whats moral and ethical, he said no. What that manse in 1996 when hes holding up that olympic torch, muhammad ali didnt change, the world changed, the nation changed. He held to his principles and the world realized he was light. So the lesson to athletes or politicians for that matter, you may do something thats unpopular now but history will redeem you if you are operating out of principle. There are not a lot of alis or jabars now. Thank you so much for that Marc Lamont Hill and david gergen. Well talk to both of you soon. Well be right back. When you look at ali, he stood up. And to be the first person to stand up and face the world, you know, he was all around the world about what he believed. And its a lot different than you than if you come behind him. Ali was the first to do that and then the skin color that he was and to stand up, its amazing to be the one that everybody looking at. He always treated me good. Id say, listen, when i first went to ali, i went up there with no equipment. I had no equipment. He gave me my boxing shoes, my boxing gloves, my boxing trunks, he gave me hand wraps. He said now you got your equipment. And thats how we became friends. And then we went down to reading, pennsylvania and we put on a boxing exhibition. He gave me a black eye, and everybody was trying to get ice, ali said, put ice on it, put ice on it and i said, no, im not going to put ice on it, im going to show this one off. No one believed i was working with muhammad ali. He was the humanitarian he was and that spirit is still vibrant. Mandela said the world cannot be served by you playing small. There is nothing in the light about shrinking so others around you wont feel insecure. We were born to make manifest of the glory of god that is within us. When we let our owe line shine, we allow others we unconsciously allow others to do the same. In order to see further and be better, we have to stand on the shoulders of giants, which is what these men were. Well be right back with much more live coverage of the death of muhammad ali, the greatest of all time. Dm what brand of makeup is better for your skin than wearing no makeup at all . Neutrogena® cosmetics. With vitamins and antioxidants. Now with foundations in shades for more skin tones. I like the bride more than the groom. Turquois dresses. So excited. Did all her exes get invited . No ones got moves like uncle joe. Should i stay or should i go . When its go, book with Choice Hotels and get a free 50 gift card for staying just two times. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. You always have a choice. For all the fancy footworks, i think his words were almost more colorful than his athletic strategy. Because of that, we want to share with you some of alis best lines in his own words. I dont like fighters who talk too much. I must be the greatest, i told the world, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee this might shock and amaze you, but i will destroy joe frazier. Im so bad, you know what ive been doing . Last week i went out to the jungle, i wrestled with an alligator, tussled with a whale and dont handcuff lightning. Im bad, man. Can i dance . Is the pope a catholic . The man to beat me hasnt been born yet. Im the greatest. If you get too small, ill knock you out. Last week i murdered a rock into a stone, i broke a brick, im so mean, i make medicine sick. Dont tell me that aint a perfect specimen of a man. Look at that body, slim, trim and on my toes. I dont just hit. Im the fastest thing on two feet, man. Are you crazy . Im tired of fighting. Im the resurrector. Im the savior of the boxing world. If it wasnt for me, the game would be dead. He was something else. Thanks for watching. Yeah, thank you so much for spending some time with us this morning as we honor him. Abdominal pain . Bloating . You may have ibs. Ask your doctor if nonprescription ibgard is right for you. Ibgard calms the angry gut. Available at cvs, walgreens and rite aid. Im a Customer Relationship my namanager with pg e. Er, ive helped customers like plantronics meet their Energy Efficiency goals. So you save energy and you can save money. Energy efficiency and the environment go hand in hand. And i love how pg es commitment to the environment helps a Community Like santa cruz be a better place to live. And being able to pass that along to my family is really important to me. Just being together and appreciating what we have right here in santa cruz. See how you can save energy at pge. Com. Together, were building a better california. Welcome, it is 11 00 on the east coast. Im fredricka whitfield. The world is indeed mourning the loss of a legend. Muhammad ali has died at the age of 74 after a long battle with pa parkinsons disease. He was hospitalized on thursday with a respiratory issue and died last night in in his hometown of louisville, kentucky, he was honored by the lowering of the