During Ali’s visit in Chicago, Elijah entrusted his third son to supervise Ali and manage his financial affairs. Herbert Muhammad spent most of his time in Chicago running various Muslim enterprises, chauffeuring his father, and editing Muhammad Speaks. A short, pudgy photographer with his own studio and limited formal education, Herbert knew very little about managing a boxer. When he was a boy, his father saw him punching a speed bag in the family garage and scolded him for wasting his time. “I don’t want you around the ring, boxing for any little fat white man with a big cigar,” he lectured. “Don’t be around any sport world. Sport is the ruin of our people. Turns them into children who’re used and then left broken. Stay out of it.”39
By the time the heavyweight champion sat in his living room, though, Elijah had changed his mind about Herbert’s involvement in boxing. He reminded his son that crooks ran the sport. Con men, he warned, would try to dupe Ali. “Make sure nobody robs him or takes advantage of him.” Elijah told Ali that he could trust his son, and that Herbert would treat him like a brother. In time, Herbert would become Ali’s financial adviser, mentor, and confidant. Most importantly, he served as Elijah’s eyes and ears, following Ali everywhere.40
That weekend, when Ali first met Herbert at his studio, the fighter did not know much about him, except what Elijah had told him. Herbert had photographed many famous black men, including Kwame Nkrumah, Prince Faisal, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and other statesmen whom he promised Ali would meet when they visited the Middle East and Africa. But when Herbert began traveling with Ali, he refused interviews and photographs. He did not want to do anything that would raise questions about his personal life. The last time his name made headlines was in October 1962, when a white woman pressed charges against him for shattering her jaw in four places. Herbert’s former mistress told police that he stalked her, broke into her apartment, and threatened to kill her if she ever left him. The Muslims adamantly denied the charges, claiming that the woman was not even white—she was black—and that Herbert was being framed, all in an attempt to “smear and malign” the Nation of Islam.41
Although the story disappeared from the front page of the Chicago Defender, it caught the attention of the FBI. When special agents began investigating Herbert, an informant told them that he carried on extramarital affairs and was nearly “possessed” with taking nude photographs of women and making pornographic films. According to a “reliable” source, Herbert convinced women to pose for his camera in exchange for gifts of jewelry and mink coats. Of course, Ali did not know about any of this. He had only just met Herbert, after all, and Elijah had said that he could trust his son. Ali never questioned the Messenger. He simply did what he was told.42
MUHAMMAD ALI’S LIFE had become a daily news story, unfolding across the pages of America’s newspapers. Since he took his first military entrance exam, writers had speculated that he would be drafted any day, ending America’s nightmare of having a Muslim boxing champion. On March 20, the army announced that Ali had failed his second entrance exam, disqualifying him from serving in the armed forces. One report claimed that he scored 78 on an IQ test, placing him well below a passing grade. Embarrassed by his poor performance, Ali admitted that he struggled to comprehend the questions. “I said I was the greatest, not the smartest,” he quipped.43
After returning to New York, he fielded questions from reporters at an impromptu press conference from the Hotel Theresa. Writers’ repeated queries about his intellect angered him. When a reporter addressed him as Cassius, he snapped, “Don’t call me Cassius Clay. My name is Muhammad Ali. It is a beautiful Arabic name.” It was the first time that he insisted writers use his new name. When another reporter made the same mistake, he corrected him. “Don’t call me Cassius Clay anymore. I am Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion of the whole world.”44
Later that night, he attended a welterweight match between Luis Rodríguez and Holley Mims at Madison Square Garden. Expecting a champion’s introduction, Ali was stunned when promoter Harry Markson refused to let the ring announcer use his Muslim name. Standing near the aisle, about twenty rows away from the ring, Ali declared, “Cassius Clay is a slave name. My real name now—from now on—is Muhammad Ali. I’ll be introduced as Muhammad Ali—or there’ll be no introduction.” Fans booed the champ until he bolted out of the arena.45