There is a remarkable photo taken on June 4, 1967, in Cleveland, where longtime Valley resident Muhammad Ali is surrounded by 11 of the leading African-American athletes of the time, including superstars Bill Russell and Jim Brown and a 20-year-old college basketball player named Lew Alcindor, who would rename himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They came to hear why the heavyweight champion was surrendering his title to oppose the Vietnam War. They left persuaded to join their voices with his to speak out on social justice and change. "This recalls a time when Ali, not silenced by disease, was so vocal in his expression of outrage against injustice, not only against people of color in this society, but against people of color the world over," Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson says about the photo. Ultimately, Ali's stance was credited with helping turn public opinion against the war. He returned to boxing and recaptured his crown. His voice was later silenced by Parkinson's disease, but he continued to be an ambassador for social justice and, before his death last year in Scottsdale, he helped raise millions to research the disease that robbed him of so many years of good health.