Letter from Muhammad Ali to Khalilah Camacho-Ali

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A letter written by Muhammad Ali to his wife, Khalilah Camacho-Ali. The letter is two pages in length and is written in cursive, in blue ink, on two (2) sheets of partially torn, unlined, white paper. The first page (2018.75a) describes a night in Louisville, Kentucky where he encountered a man selling the newspaper of the Nationa of Islam, Muhammad Speaks. He noted that it was the first time he had heard of the paper. The second page (2018.75b) continues from page one and goes on to say that the newspaper seller invited him to a meeting, and though he did not intend to go to the meeting, he did purchase a copy of Muhammad Speaks. The rest of page 2 describes a cartoon in the paper that depicted an enslaved person being punished for praying in Arabic and a white slave owner insisting that the enslaved person prays to Jesus.

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