Blood Brothers: The Friendship and Fallout of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali

Posted September 9, 2021

External Article: The Guardian

Johnny Smith, the Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor of Sports History and an associate professor in the School of History and Sociology, was mentioned in the article, "Blood Brothers: The Friendship and Fallout of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali," published Sept. 9, 2021, in The Guardian.

The article discusses the Netflix documentary Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali, which is based in part on Smith's 2016 book of the same name with co-author Randy Roberts.

An excerpt:

Blood Brothers, which is produced by the creator of Black-ish, Kenya Barris, adapts Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith’s book about X and Ali’s relationship, drawn from heavy research into past biographies, documents and FBI surveillance records. Roberts and Smith also appear in the film...Clarke adds that he saw an opportunity to balance the scholarly work of Roberts and Smith with more intimate accounts from those close to X and Ali, while exploring social and cultural details that the book doesn’t consider to the same extent.