"Before James Brown said, 'I'm black and I'm proud,' Muhammad Ali said, 'I'm black and I'm pretty,'" Cosby told a crowd the arena, referring to the 1960s R&B singer. "Ali and MLK instilled in our generation that you didn't just have to sit back and do as you were told," Martin said. Ali's hearse snaked through the city, pausing for a huge crowed outside his boyhood home, en route to a cemetery for a private burial beneath a headstone reading simply "Ali. "City officials estimated 100,000 people came out to honor Ali, many traveling from across the country and across the world. "Rickey Martin, 55, compared him to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a towering figure of the 20th century.

Source: Times of India June 10, 2016 20:44 UTC