… Edith Greathouse, who was Alexander’s great-granddaughter.
“I didn’t know who Archer Alexander was when I traced the family tree,” said Winstead, 67. “I Googled him, and I just said, ‘Wow.’ ”
Ali was born in segregated Louisville in 1942, and his role as a pioneer and activist would become as much a part of his legacy as his boxing career (he died in 2016). In the 1960s, he joined the Nation of Islam, which was led by Elijah Muhammad, who advocated for racial separation, believing White America had stripped African Americans of their family histories. Indeed, descendants of slaves can have a difficult time tracing their ancestry because their forebears had their identities purposely and systematically stripped.
One of Ali’s daughter, Maryum, said that her father would have been proud to call Alexander family. “He would have loved knowing he was connected to someone like that,” she said. “He was ahead of people in understanding that there was a connection that went back through slavery to the kings and queens in Africa.”