Now Georgia's filibustering Democratic Senator Richard Russell rose to take up the cause of Muhammad Ali, more commonly known as Cassius Clay. Scarcely troubling to conceal the twinkle in his eye, Russell inveighed against a World Boxing Association move to vacate Clay's world heavyweight championship title, cited it as a prime example of the intolerance that had inspired the civil rights bill.
"I have pointed out before that a wave of intolerance accompanied by a determination to enforce conformity of thought and action on all men was sweeping through the nation," Russell...
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