Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon represents a comprehensive cross-section of Ali’s life and times. The exhibit gives viewers the chance to glimpse rarely seen moments of his personal life as well as more famous episodes from his career. These images not only illustrate the enormous changes that he went through from a patriotic Olympic champion to a draft-resisting member of the Nation of Islam to a figure of racial reconciliation, but also show that Ali’s gregarious, funny, and likable core personality remained intact even as a super-charged political atmosphere swirled around him.  
 
Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon chronicles someone who was simultaneously the most beloved and most hated man in boxing and who still engenders a strong emotional response from people almost fifty years after his initial rise to public prominence. These photographs tell the story of an American hero that has come full circle in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world. 
 
This distinctive exhibition features photographs by Annie Leibovitz, Gordon Parks, Steve Schapiro, Thomas Hoepker, John Goodman, and Art Shay, among others. Originally curated for the Hofstra University Art Museum in conjunction with the Hofstra Cultural Center conference The Greatest:  From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali in 2008.  
 
The newly revamped traveling exhibition features expanded commentary by guest curator Michael Ezra, a professor of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University who specializes in African American History and African American Culture.  
 
A companion publication by Michael Ezra Muhammad Ali: the Making of an Icon (Temple University Press, 2009) is available.