In Miami, and on his travels around the States for a succession of fights, he encounters black icons such as Sam Cooke and Malcolm X, who fuel his interest in black music on the one hand, and the Nation Of Islam on the other. Cosgrove dots around related events either side of this period as the fancy takes him, but the primary focus is the development of the young Cassius. At the start of this period the young Cassius Clay lately crowned Olympic light-heavyweight champion, arrives in Miami to begin his professional career in the gym of trainer Angelo Dundee, and it ends with him winning the world heavyweight title from Sonny Liston. The primary timeframe of Cassius X runs from November 1960 to February 1964. (For the purposes of this piece, I’ll refer to Cassius Clay rather than Ali, to avoid confusion.) But the book also echoes Stuart Cosgrove’s recent Soul Trilogy by exploring the development of black music in the Sixties, against the backdrop of the wider black experience in the period.Ĭassius Clay/Muhammed Ali - jive talkin'! Well, the “hook” for Cassius X may be the early professional boxing career of Cassius Clay, and his migration from that identity to Islam and Muhammed Ali. What’s this? A book about a boxer on a music blog? For why?
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