Author Entertainment Series – Thomas Aiello

Return of the King: The Rebirth of Muhammad Ali and the Rise of Atlanta

Return of the King tells the story of Muhammad Ali’s return to the ring in 1970, after a more than three-year suspension for refusing his draft notice as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. With Ali’s career still in doubt, he found new support in shifting public opinion about the war and in Atlanta, a city still governed by white supremacy, but a white supremacy decidedly different from that of its neighbor cities in the Deep South.

Atlanta had been courting and landing professional sports teams in football, basketball, and baseball since the end of 1968. An influential state politician, Leroy Johnson, Georgia’s first Black state senator since Reconstruction, was determined to help Ali return after his exile. The state had no boxing commission to prevent Ali from fighting there, so Johnson made it his mission for Ali to make a comeback in Georgia. Ali’s opponent would be Jerry Quarry, the top heavyweight contender and, more important, a white man who had spoken out against Ali’s objection to the war.

In Return of the King, Thomas Aiello examines the history of Muhammad Ali, Leroy Johnson, and the city of Atlanta, while highlighting an important fight of Ali’s that changed the trajectory of his career. Although the fight between Ali and Quarry lasted only three rounds, those nine minutes changed boxing forever and were crucial to both the growth of Atlanta and the rebirth of Ali’s boxing career.

Meet The Author

Thomas Aiello is professor of anthrozoology, history and African American studies at Valdosta State University. He has authored more than twenty books and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles. His work helped amend the Louisiana Constitution to make non-unanimous juries illegal and was cited in the US Supreme Court as part of its decision ruling them unconstitutional. His most recent books are The Life and Times of Louis Lomax: The Art of Deliberate Disunity (Duke University Press, 2021), The Trouble in Room 519: Money, Matricide, and Marginal Fiction in the Early Twentieth Century (Louisiana State University, 2021) and The Artistic Activism of Elombe Brath (Mississippi University Press, 2021). He received his first PhD from the University of Arkansas in 2007 and his second from the University of Exeter in 2021. The bulk of his courses relate to all measures of African American history, from early slavery to Black Power, and all aspects of animal studies. His research interests are broader, covering twentieth century United States cultural and intellectual history, twentieth century African American cultural and intellectual history in a variety of different settings, and animal studies, critical animal studies, and anthrozoology.