The world would come to know him as Muhammad Ali, but on 25 February 1964, a twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay celebrated his world heavyweight title not by hitting the town, but in a hotel room with his three closest friends: activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and
American football star Jim Brown.
To the outside world, they were American icons. But in that hotel room, here were four men who understood each other and their moment in history in a way that no one else could. With the Civil Rights movement stirring outside, and the melody of ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ hanging in the air, these men would emerge from that room ready to define a new world.
