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Childhood home of Muhammad Ali in Louisville
Where is John Mellencamp when you need him…
Saw an article about the childhood home of Muhammad Ali going up for sale & it sort of got me going on the topic.
There is a long ancillary about racially segregated Louisville, and “white flight” from it’s west end suburbs. A ton of race relations history that is not the purview of this article. Including what was no less than a terrorist attack upon the home of an African-American family in Shively (1954). And the persecution of Carl Braden for helping that family.
My mom knew his wife Anne. Carl & Anne Braden were both in the trenches for social justice and racial equality in Louisville, in an era when rampant bigotry made that a very risky thing.
Can speak as a resident / 1960’s as a kid, 1970’s through 1984. I would gather there has been a gradual creep of integrated suburbs since that time.
White Flight went on through & beyond the period in which Ali lived in the west end house above. Both of my parents grew up there when it was caucasian suburbia. They were in other cities for a while in their 20’s – then when they returned and were able to buy a starter house, they bought in the east end.
Neither were racist and they never taught us that. Yet they still moved away from a racially-changing part of Louisville.
The east end was highly segregated in my childhood. Just a few Af-Am kids at our schools. Federal fair housing laws were essential to help change a prevailing dynamic of housing discrimination. Court-ordered busing to create integrated schools, came about in the 1970’s across numerous cities.
Although I ducked out of busing by the assignment system (first letter of last name), I volunteered for urban Central High School for 2 years. Students from all over the east end schools were there via busing and I made friends I never would have otherwise.
The schools were effectively, still segregated after busing. White & Black socialized with their own, with some exceptions of course. What it accomplished was a lot less transparent. It puts one in proximity racially & you slowly build a comfort level that you’d be precluded from in a segregated school.
Busing has long since gone defunct – replaced by magnet schools and relaxed requirements of racial student makeup. It was a fraught system from the standpoint of parents being a long way away from their child during the school day. As mandates go it was rather draconian, but arguably a kick-starter for a future of declining segregation. More acceptance of ethnic diversity, less ignorance & fear.
Ali helped change attitudes also. Local kid wins the Olympic gold medal and goes on to be regarded as the greatest boxer ever. Boxing was a major sport back then, the top fighters were household names and pretty much everyone I knew was an Ali fan.
Of course that applies on a national level as well – Ali, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, Bill Russell – talented athletes whom were also catalysts for racial tolerance & integration.