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SPECIAL
YEARS OF THE
CALIFORNIAMUSEUM EXPERIENCE
THIRTY YEARS AGO
a group of art and history enthusiasts met to formulate a plan forcreating an Afro-American Museum in the State of California. Commitment to this goal resultedin the passage of a bill by the1977-78 California Legislatureauthorizing the establishmentof a museum for preserving thehistory, culture and contributionsof Afro-Americans. It wasscheduled to open in ExpositionPark in 1984.The primary goals were topreserve, display, and conductprograms on the contributionsof Afro-Americans to the arts,sciences, religion, education,literature, entertainment, politics and sports and to educate, promote awareness of and to createa climate for understanding the global effect on the world’s culture by people of African descent.
FAST FORWARD THIRTY YEARS
and the nameof the museum and the wording on its mission statementhave been slightly altered. Now named The California AfricanAmerican Museum (CAAM), the mandate is to collect, pre-serve and interpret for public enrichment—the history, art andculture of African Americans.It has fulfilled that mission in hundreds of ways—from the epicin size like Artis Lane’s larger than life
Emerging First Man
toways as small as the laughter of a child discovering an image inan African mask. One of the most important aspects of the mod-ern day CAAM is that it engagespeople of all ages and interests because there is always somethingto do—from the Conversationsat CAAM, children’s workshops,Target Sundays--most recentlycelebrating the life of BobMarley--lectures, receptions andever-changing exhibits, plus itsPermanent Collection.Anybody who thinks a museumis where everything moves at a snail’s pace, where paintings from olddead artists hang centered on the wall, needs to think again when itcomes to CAAM. Currently on exhibit, “Black Chrome,” a look at theevolution of motorcycle clubs in California, includes several milliondollars worth of real motorcycles belonging to club members. There’salso “A Moment In Time: Bingham’s Black Panthers,” “Of Tulipsand Shadows, the Visual Metaphors of dewey crumpler” and thePermanent Collection called “The African American Journey West,”which includes items from Ella Fitzgerald and other legends.CAAM is bursting at the seams and plans for needed expansion areunderway. In a time when it’s never beenmore important to preserve and protectour culture, CAAM is moving at warpspeed to keep alive that mandate set by a bunch of dreamers thirty years ago.Celebrating that 30-year anniversarythis year at CAAM’s annual gala, themuseum is saluting three whose con-tributions to our culture and historyare what CAAM finds so important topreserve and protect.
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13
MUHAMMAD ALI:
Forever the Greatest
By Ruth A. Robinson
MUHAMMAD ALI HAS BEEN
honored many times in his life.He was named “Sportsman of the 20
th
Century” by
Sports Illustrated 
and“Athlete of the Century” by
GQ
, was the central figure in two films--theAcademy Award-winning documentary “When We Were Kings” and his bio,“Ali.” He was the first fighterto win the world heavyweightchampionship on three sepa-rate occasions; he successfullydefended his title 19 times.At the California AfricanAmerican Museum’sannual gala this year, he is being honored for “morethan his boxing,” observesCAAM’s Executive DirectorCharmaine Jefferson. “Here isa man who stood up againstwrong and by doing sochanged our society.”Such a thing couldn’t have been imagined in 1942 whenCassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.,was born into the very seg-regated Louisville, Kentucky.His father, Cassius Sr., sup-ported his family by paint-ing billboards and signs. Hismother, Odessa Grady Clay,worked as a household domes-tic.At 12, he took up boxingunder Louisville policeman Joe Martin. Then he won agold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and began a professionalcareer supported by the Louisville Sponsoring Group, a syndicate composedof 11 wealthy white men.In his early bouts as a professional, Clay sought to raise public interest inhis fights praising his own prowess and offering predictions on winning. Hetold the world that he was “the Greatest.”Clay challenged Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of theworld. No one thought Clay had a chance against the fearsome Liston--except young Cassius. In one of the most stunning upsets in sports history,Clay knocked out Liston to become the new champion.Two days later, Clay shocked the world by announcing that he had becomea Nation of Islam convert and would forever after be known as MuhammadAli. For the next three years dominated boxing stunning the world in hisfirst-ring knockout in the Liston rematch and then beating eight challengers.Then he shocked everybody by refusing induction into the U.S. Army at theheight of the war in Vietnam. He could have run away, but he didn’t and waspublicly vilified. He was stripped of his championship and blocked from fight-ing in the United States. His passport was taken away so he couldn’t fightanywhere outside the country either. In addition, he was criminally indictedand convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. It was four long years before the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction. Hehad risked everything, lost much, but stood his ground in order to ‘stand forsomething.’Ali was allowed to return to boxing, but having been away during his primeyears, it was not easy going. He did win two comeback fights, but then camethe “Fight of the Century,” against Joe Frazier. Frazier won a unanimous15-round decision.After that, Ali won ten fights in a row, eight of them against world-classopponents. Then Ken Norton beat Ali and broke his jaw, but Ali won theirrematch. His rematch with Joe Frazier was a unanimous 12-round decisionin his favor.Then Ali challenged GeorgeForeman, who had taken thetitle from Frazier while Ali wasin exile. Ali was received by thepeople of Zaire as a conqueringhero, and the screams got louderwhen he knocked Foreman out.Retiring from boxing after hisloss to Trevor Berbick, Ali hascontinued his study of Islam.In the mid-1970s, he began tostudy the Ou’ran more deeplyand became a Sunni Muslim.He also became an activist forpeace around the globe. Hewent to Beirut to help negoti-ate the release of four Americanhostages. He met with SaddamHussein before the Gulf War tosuccessfully secure the release of 15 American hostages. Ali wasalso appointed United NationsMessenger for Peace.In 1996 he was chosen to lightthe Olympic flame at the startof the 24
th
Olympiad in Atlanta,Georgia. President Bill Clintonadmits to crying when he sawAli take the torch, his handtrembling from his Parkinson’ssyndrome, but his champion’sheart intact. President Clinton’ssentiments were echoed aroundthe globe by three million view-ers. There is no doubt that hisstatus as one of the most belovedathletes in the world remainsintact.The United StatesGovernment passed theMuhammad Ali Boxing ReformAct to prohibit unfair and anti-competitive practices in profes-sional boxing, the same yearthat the film “Ali” was released by Sony. He was also pre-sented with a star on HollywoodBoulevard, the first star ever to be displayed on the wall insteadof on the sidewalk.Ali’s place in boxing history asone of the greatest fighters ever issecure. His final record of 56 winsand 5 losses with 37 knockoutssolidifies his hero status. Outsidethe ring, he has proven hisgreatness as well, determined tostand his ground in the face of allobstacles, able to take a punchwherever that blow was comingfrom. The skinny kid fromLouisville who called himself “The Greatest of All Time” was,and remains, all that.
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SPECIAL
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14
HOWARD BINGHAM:
 
Tom Bradley Unsung Hero Awardee
By Coy L. Oakes
HOWARD BINGHAM IS ONE
 
of America’s most highlyregarded photographers. His work has appeared in hundreds of nationalmagazines, newspapers and books, including
Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, Newsweek
and
Ebony
. The extraordinary qualities in his work have always been honored, but not so much the person behind the camera.Lately the man himself is being acknowledged in a major way. There aregalleries in his name, exhibits of his work and scholarships in his honor. Hewas just celebrated at the National Black Caucus and now is being hon-ored by the California African American Museum with the “Tom BradleyUnsung Hero” award. He was chosen to receive this honor, according tothe Executive Director Charmaine Jefferson, because, “Howard is a trueartist. He does much, much more than just take photographs. Almosteverybody has seen and appreciated one of his photos, now it is time tosalute the artist behind the camera.”The photographer is being honored at CAAM’s annual gala, along withMuhammad Ali and radio station KJLH in Los Angeles. It is fitting that both Bingham and Ali are being honored on the same night, as Binghamhas taken more than a million photographs of Ali, which reveal the 40-plusyear friendship between the two.They became pals almost by accident when Bingham was a strugglingyoung newspaper photographer and Ali was still Cassius Clay. Binghamwas assigned to cover a news conference for an upcoming boxing matchin Los Angeles when he first encountered the young boxer and his brotherRudy.Bingham soon had aringside seat to historyas young Cassius became“The Greatest” and wasthere with his camera tocapture Ali’s ascension totrue cultural icon.Another professionalmilestone came withthe 2004 publicationof “GOAT,” a book of Ali’s life story told inthree thousand stun-ning pictures. The title-”GOAT” is an acronymfor “greatest of all time,”Muhammad’s nick-name. The signed andnumbered edition of theTachen-published bookis one of the treasureditems up for auctionat the CAAM gala onOctober 18.Bingham didn’t seemdestined for photographicgreatest in his early beginnings. He flunkedhis one and only photoclass at a communitycollege in Compton. ButHoward soon became amaster behind the lens,learning his craft work-ing during what he calls “on the job training” at the
Los Angeles Sentinel.
 Being there proved another stroke of good timing.In the mid-60s, Los Angeles was still reeling from the aftermath of theWatts riots and back in the day many major news magazines such as
 Life
had almost no African-American journalists on staff. Bingham gotthe call, and soon he was cover-ing racial unrest across America,recording yet another remarkablechapter of the nation’s history withhis camera. That continued untilhe was assigned to cover a KKKRally in Los Angeles. Even witharmed guards, it was not anythingBingham wanted to experienceagain.He’s unable to choose favoritesubjects or favorite photographers, but he is fond of those taken of Nelson Mandela, Bill Cosby andBill Clinton. One of his choices,though, does include two of his mosticonic subjects. In 1996, he capturedPresident Bill Clinton embracingMuhammad Ali moments after Alilit the torch at the Olympic caul-dron in Atlanta.There is a gallery named in hishonor at the Ali Center in Louisville,a scholarship in hisname has been fund-ed by Kodak at theRochester Institute.Another Binghamgallery is in theworks at the WattsLabor CommunityAction Center, wherethe photographerdoes “lots of workwith kids,” he says.Bingham’s manyexhibits include theone currently openat the CaliforniaAfrican AmericanMuseum’s TheatreGallery: “A Momentin Time: Bingham’sBlack Panthers,”which runs nowthrough April,2009 and coincideswith the release of Bingham’s new bookon the same subjectmatter.Bingham’s sub- jects range fromhungry and home-less to giants of politics and enter-tainment. “Knockon wood, I’ve beena blessed human being,” Bingham says. The world has been blessed also with the imagesBingham has captured through thevision in his lens.
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