Features / Interviews
Memories of a boxing legend
On the walls and sideboards of the home of Paul Stephenson, the civil rights campaigner who led the Bristol bus boycott, are photos of his great friend Muhammad Ali.
Ali signed each photo with a personal note to Paul – testimony to the man who managed to persuade the world’s greatest boxer to join him in the struggle for equal rights and equality.
Paul spoke to Bristol247 in 2014 about his lasting friendship with Ali, how they met and the legacy they created together.
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It took a brave man to take on Muhammad Ali who in his heyday was the most famous man on the planet.
But Paul Stephenson was no lightweight. The man who led the Bristol bus boycott, which paved the way for the first race relations act in 1965, had a self-belief in his cause which matched Ali’s belief in himself.
Paul recalls hearing that Ali was flying into London after his famous ‘rumble in the jungle’ fight with with George Foreman in Zaire.
He stalked him in the foyer of the Hilton Hotel and brazenly asked him to come to Tulse Hill school in Brixton where he was governor. Ali told him that he was a “busy man” but Paul persevered.
“I told him it would be just for a few hours and it would be an honour if he could come.”
“Money came up and I told him we couldn’t pay him for his visit and he told me I had more nerve that Joe Frazier.”
But Paul knew that behind the bravado was a man deeply and outspokenly committed to civil rights – and Tulse Hill was a huge multi-cultural school whose pupils needed motivation.
“He came the next day and the whole school turned out to see him,” said Paul.
It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
The pair worked actively together for the next five years setting up the Muhammad Ali Sports Development Association in Brixton which was committed to ensuring that.
“We never talked about boxing,” said Paul, “we talked about what we could do to promote opportunities for black people so they could get an education.”
Paul visited Ali in the states and the friendship continued for many years with cards and letters.
In 1976 Ali signed one photo to Paul and his wife: “Love is the net where hearts are caught like fish”.
Although they last saw each other nearly two decades ago the words reveal the true extent of their love, respect and friendship for each other.
Read more: Paul Stephenson on Bristol’s continuing fight against racism