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Muhammad Ali Memorial Service. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 10, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:00:05]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Freddie, he has -- he played a very special role in your life. And you two -- you have -- you have something in common with him.

FREDDIE ROACH, WORLD-CLASS BOXING TRAINER: Yes, I do. I have Parkinson's.

And I was diagnosed back in 1999. And I mean 1989. And it's -- you know, it's tough to deal with. And, you know, the older you get, the harder it is to deal with and so forth. And...

LEMON: Give me your first impressions as you're watching the service and you're seeing these pictures and images roll on the screen here.

ROACH: It's really nice to see all the people there and all the caring people. And it's a little bit sad, though, that we lost him.

And, you know, I do hope some day there's a cure soon.

LEMON: Yes.

ROACH: But I'm sorry that -- I'm just sad that he's gone.

LEMON: Fred, your first impressions?

FRED STERNBURG, VETERAN BOXING PUBLICIST: Well, you know, it's the tributes that have been coming in that you have been reading over the past, you know, week have been joyous.

And it's been a great reminder to all of us what he meant to so many people and what he symbolized. And I think we had forgotten after a while, because he had been out of the public eye for so long.

But, you know, there is a great deal of sadness because it's an end of an era, an era that probably ended many years before today. But this, I think, also a celebration of what he contributed to not just a sport, but to humanity.

LEMON: And you -- I was reading about you, and you said that you would be retired tax judge by now?

(CROSSTALK)

STERNBURG: Oh, that was Bob Arum. He's a client of mine. (CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

STERNBURG: Bob was working for the attorney general, for Bobby Kennedy, in the '60s, when Jim Brown introduced him to Muhammad Ali. And then when he was in private practice, the first fight Bob ever saw was the first fight he ever promoted, which Ali vs. Chuvalo in 1966.

And then Bob said, if it hadn't been for those two, he probably would have retired as a tax judge.

LEMON: What impact did he have on your life?

STERNBURG: Well, I never knew him, but, you know, I do public relations for a lot of these fights and marketing, and, my God, he just broke the mold for how we all perceive events in sports and entertainment today. He was a dream come true for someone like me.

And you can't copy him. But he sure showed us the way how to present an event to cross over to other people.

LEMON: What impact did he have on you, Freddie?

ROACH: Well, he had a big impact when he came to my gym one day.

LEMON: Unannounced, right?

ROACH: Yes, unannounced, just walked through the door and asked me if he could work out. And I said, yes, yes, yes, sure.

And then the first thing I do, I grab the phone. I was going to start calling some people up. And then I says, no, let's just let this happen naturally. And I hung the phone back. And he went over and hit the heavy bag. And, of course, he picked the biggest in the place, which heavyweights do, and he started banging on that

And the amazing thing was that he started -- his tremors when he was hitting the heavy bag. And then when he stopped hitting the heavy bag and came over and talked to me, his tremors came back a little bit. And I said, you know, when I'm in the ring doing mitts with my fighters and so forth, my tremors go away. And like you, it must be like our comfort zone, a boxing gym.

LEMON: Yes.

ROACH: And he spent four hours in my gym that day. It was the greatest four hours we have ever had.

LEMON: Yes.

ROACH: And...

LEMON: Stand by for me, Fred, Charles, and Freddie. The family is walking in now to the KFC Yum! center in Louisville,

Kentucky. We're going to listen in for just a little bit for the memorial service for Muhammad Ali.

[15:05:27]

So the family walking in, Muhammad Ali, nine children, seven beautiful daughters and also four wives.

Just amazing pictures that are coming from the center in Louisville, Kentucky. And, again, among the speakers today, of course, the former President of the United States Bill Clinton will be speaking. Billy Crystal will be speaking, and legendary broadcaster Bryant Gumbel speaking as well. They developed a friendship over the years, as well as with Billy Crystal, and, of course, the president, former president of the United States, providing Muhammad Ali with the second highest civilian honor, medal not long ago.

And so, again, as we look at these pictures and we are monitoring the funeral here, it is amazing pictures coming in, and so many people are gathered here in this center and gathered, really, around the world to watch us memorialize this man, really to honor his lives, as my guests have been saying here on set.

I want to bring in Charles Coleman, who is a civil rights lawyer and a boxing fan here.

And I asked the other two gentlemen what impact he had on their lives.

What impact did he have on your life?

CHARLES COLEMAN JR., CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, for me, Don, it is the consummate example of a great American.

And I think that in the context of everything that we have been talking about in the political season in this presidential election, I think we cannot lose sight of the fact that Muhammad Ali stood for so many things that made him a hero to so many at a time when it would have been easy for him to cower away, to shy away from his beliefs and what he was really about.

He was a black man who stood unapologetically and unashamed in his blackness. He was a Muslim man. He was of a man of the faith of Islam. He was really, really into that and stood for that as well, at a time when, like I said, someone of his stature, it would have been very easy for him to sort of shun that, walk away from that. But he stood for that and he stood proud of that. And I think he taught us all about how to be better people and how to be better Americans.

LEMON: This is really a coming home service for him, Freddie, because this is the same arena that he began his amateur boxing career as a 12-year-old boy.

ROACH: Yes.

You know, most fighters grow up as fighters, and usually have fathers and so forth they want to be like. I started boxing when I was 6, and, you know, followed my dad's direction and so forth. And I had like 150 amateur fights and then 54 pro fights. But, again, this is like -- it's like home. This is home for him.

LEMON: Yes.

It's amazing for the folks who are a little bit older, may remember when Muhammad Ali wasn't always celebrated. Right? There were people who were very upset with him, not happy with him because of his stance on the Vietnam War and that he refused to go and that he changed his name to Muhammad Ali from Cassius Clay.

COLEMAN: Sure.

LEMON: Because he thought that that was the name of a slave owner, right? But he was not always celebrated.

COLEMAN: No, not at all.

And I think that it's really ironic to see -- it's a good thing to see the outpour of love and support that has happened, but I think if Muhammad Ali was in current day, you know, United States, in terms of who he was then and expressed being very vocal about expressing his viewers, I don't necessarily know that he would be the revered and loved figure that he's been and become over the years, because this who was outspoken about a war that many people were dying from and dying in and losing family members about.

And so for him to take that stance of not going because of his convictions, because of his religious faith, that was a big statement, particularly because he was Muslim and black.

So, for many people in mainstream America at the time, it was an issue of, how dare this person defy what our government has decided to do in going to war? And I dare say that if he were alive today and were as vocal as he was at that point about some of those issues, Muhammad Ali would be on the side of Black Lives Matter right now. That's what Muhammad Ali would be if he were in the mix and in the throes the same way that he was then.

And I don't know if he would be as popular.

LEMON: And clearly the times needed to catch up with Muhammad Ali, because now he's celebrated and loved and beloved all over the world, as you can see from this outpouring in Louisville, Kentucky.

I want to bring in CNN's Jason Carroll in Kentucky. Jason is covering this for us.

And, Jason, you are also friends with one of Muhammad Ali's daughters. He is joining us from outside the arena -- Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, right.

Maryum Ali, we call her May May. I have known her, as you know, Don, for many, many years. And I just think about what she's going through at this point. I think about the stories she used to tell about her father.

[15:10:03]

One in particular, and I don't think she'd mind me telling this story now, she was about 13 or 14 years old. And that was the moment, Don, that she realized her father was more than just her father, more than just a famous boxer, that he was something much, much greater than that.

And here's how the story went. Again, she was about 13 or 14 years ago. They had gone to a diner. This was sometime in the '70s. A man walked up to the table and had said that his father had raised him to hate black people. His father was a member of the KKK. And he saw the way that Muhammad Ali carried himself with so much pride, saw the way Muhammad Ali was affecting not just the world of boxing, but the world at large, politically, socially.

And he said, I can't go on to hate black people because of you. And for Maryum Ali, that was the real moment that she realized her father was so much more than a boxer, that he was impacting the world.

Another story I remember her telling, she told me how much her dad used to love to after boxing matches to get in a car and drive around urban centers and interact with people. And there was one time in Philadelphia...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Jason, I want to interrupt you just for a moment, please. My apologies.

CARROLL: Sure.

LEMON: I want to get to -- the former president is arriving now. Let's listen in for just a moment. And we will get back to you, Jason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All praises due to God, the lord of all the worlds.

And now please be seated, ladies and gentlemen. In accordance with Muslim tradition, and consistent with the wishes of Muhammad Ali, may God have mercy on him, we begin this program with a brief recitation from the Koran, the scripture of the Muslims, by Hamzah Abdul-Malik.

Hamzah Abdul-Malik is a young imam of the Midtown Mosque in Memphis, Tennessee, where he's spearheading a neighborhood renewal effort in one of the most blighted neighborhood in Memphis. And that effort is centered around the mosque. One of the few African-American graduates of Al-Azhar University, he will share with us a few verses from the Koran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Hamzah Abdul-Malik.

(APPLAUSE)

HAMZAH ABDUL-MALIK, IMAM: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[15:17:20]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now with the recitation -- excuse me -- with the translation of those verses, we would like to bring to the stage Alia Kupa (ph). Alia Kupa (ph) is a second-generation daughter of Syrian immigrants. She's an excellent student.

In her spare time in recent years, she raises money to provide medical supplies, surgical instruments, and other forms of medical assistance for Syrian refugees fleeing from the horror of the current conflict in that land. And we pray that almighty God brings it to a secession soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Alia Kupa (ph).

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful, truly those who say our lord is God, and are upright, the angels will disease descend upon them, saying, have neither fear nor sadness, but rather rejoice in this paradise that you have been promised.

We are your allies in this lower life and the year after, where you will have your heart's desire, and you will have whatever you ask for, hospitably from the one most forgiving, most merciful.

Who is more beautiful in speech than the one who invites to God and does righteous works, saying, truly, I am submitted to God? For, good and evil are not equal. Repel ugliness with beauty and, behold, the one between you and whom there was enmity is transformed into a warm friend.

But no one arrives at the station without great patience and immense fortune. (INAUDIBLE) prostration, Chapter 41 Verses 30 to 35.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

LEMON: You are watching live coverage now of Muhammad Ali's funeral.

We will get a quick break in, and we will be right back with more live coverage. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:13]

LEMON: Back now with our live coverage of the memorial of Muhammad Ali.

Dr. Kevin Cosby speaking now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) DR. KEVIN COSBY, PASTOR, LOUISVILLE'S ST. STEPHEN BAPTIST CHURCH:

Merv Griffin asked Dr. King a relevant question.

He said, "Dr. King, what has been the greatest effect and impact that the civil rights struggle has had on the Negro?"

Dr. King paused and said, "Besides the dismantling of barriers that prohibited the Negro from free access, the greatest and the most profound effect that the civil rights struggle had was that it infused in the Negro something that the Negro needed all along, and that was a sense of somebody-ness."

You will never be able to appreciate what Dr. King meant when he said the Negro needed a sense of somebody-ness until you understand the 350 years of nobody-ness that was infused into the psyche of people of color.

Every sacred document in our history, every hallowed institution conspired to convince the African in America that when God made the African, that God was guilty of creative malfeasance.

[15:25:01]

All of our sacrosanct documents from the Constitution said to the Negro that you're nobody. The Constitution said that we were three- fifths of a person. Decisions by the Supreme Court like the Dred Scott said to the Negro, to the African that you had no rights that whites were bound to respect.

And even Francis Scott Key, in his writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," we sing verse one, but in verse three, he celebrates slavery by saying, no refuge can save the hireling and slave from the sorrow of night or the death of the grave."

Every institution, from religion to entertainment, from "Amos 'n' Andy" to Jane and Tarzan, infused in the psyche of the Negro that he was inferior. But something happened to the Depression generation and the World War II generation of African-Americans.

Jackie Robinson picked up his bat and hit a ball, and the Brooklyn Dodgers win the pennant. Joe Louis dismantles the pride of Aryan supremacy by knocking out Max Schmeling in 124 seconds. Jesse Lewis (ph) runs in ambulatory speed and wins four gold medals.

Rosa Parks sits down on a bus in Montgomery in December of 1995, and a young seminary student from Boston University stands up and takes the complex ideas of Neville (ph) and Tillich and dips it in chocolate so big mama can understand it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

COSBY: And then from Louisville...

(APPLAUSE)

COSBY: ... emerged the silver-tongued poet who took the ethos of somebody-ness to unheard-of heights.

Before James Brown said, "I'm black and I'm proud," Muhammad Ali said, "I'm black and I'm pretty."

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

COSBY: Black and pretty was an oxymoron.

Blacks did not say pretty. The first black millionaire in this country was not Oprah. But it was Madam C.J. Walker, who made products in order to help black people escape their Africanity.

But Muhammad Ali said: "I'm proud. I'm pretty. I'm glad of who I am."

And when he said that, that infused in Africans a sense of somebody- ness.

To extrapolate Muhammad Ali from the times in which he lives is what is called historic presentism. It is to talk about George Washington and not talk about the American revolution. It's to talk about Abraham Lincoln and not talk about the Civil War. It is to talk about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and not talk about the Depression and World War II.

Our brother Muhammad Ali was a product of a difficult time. And he dared to love black people, at a time when black people had a problem loving themselves.

(APPLAUSE)

COSBY: He dared -- he dared to affirm the beauty of blackness. He dared to affirm the power and the capacity of African-Americans.

He dared to love America's most unloved race. And he loved us all, and we loved him, because he -- we knew he loved us. He loved us all.

Whether you lived in the suburbs or whether you lived in the slums, whether you lived on the avenue or whether you lived in an alley, whether you came from the penthouse or whether you lived in the projects, whether you came from Morehouse or whether you had no house, whether you were high yellow or bootblack, Muhammad Ali