The change came courtesy of Ali’s conversion to the Nation of Islam religious movement, under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. The group took its core beliefs from Islamic teachings, while adding some provisos, including a desire for African Americans to receive “full and complete freedom,” “equal membership in society,” “separate schools … (with) all black children educated, taught and trained by their own teachers,” and the belief that “intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited,” according to Elijah’s 1965 treatise Message To The Blackman in America. Ali’s hardline subscription to this belief system gave us prime, hard-reading quotes from the champ, like this one from a 1975 Playboy interview: “A black man should be killed if he’s messing with a white woman.”

It’s all part of a wildly complex life that’s been described as Disneyfied. Yes, Muhammad Ali made some remarkable choices. He gave up some of the best years of his career to protest the Vietnam War and served as a United States diplomat under President Jimmy Carter, per Politico. On the other hand, he also personally accepted awards from the Ku Klux Klan for his vocal support of segregation, according to the Independent.

History is hard.