House on What Burns’ Muhammad Ali Doc Misses About the Nation of Islam: Daily Beast

Journalism associate professor Roger House writes for the Daily Beast about what recollections on what heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and the Nation of Islam meant to youths growing up in East Elmhurst, a neighborhood of Queens in New York City.

Read the full piece on the Daily Beast.

The Burns film, Muhammad Ali, did a good job of chronicling the usual markers of Ali’s life story but fell short in depicting why the NOI would appeal to ordinary Black youths at the time; instead, it spotlighted the group’s “separatist” identity, the “exotic” faith and uniforms, the internal rivalries, and the intemperate statements of organization speakers.