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1.31.26 - Part 2 · Children's Hour

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  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Reali's Children's Story Hour. As a reminder,
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  REI is a reading service intended for people who are
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  blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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  read prim material. Today we will be reading from various
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  books on Black History Months, which is February first to
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  February twenty eighth. Your reader today is Diane. Our first
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  book is about a famous Black American named Muhammad Ali
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  and the book is titled Muhammad Ali Sports Unite US.
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  It was published by Cherry Lake Publishing. It has a
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  copyright ear of twenty nineteen and the author of the
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  book is jay E. Skinner. Chapter one. Boxing and the
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  Greatest Boxing is one of the oldest sports in the world.
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  Has existed since fifteen hundred BC and has been a
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  part of the modern Olympic game since nineteen oh four.
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  Fans enjoy the energy and excitement of watching a fight.
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  Viewers watch with anticipation as their favorite fighter walks down
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  the ramp and enters the ring. The fighter throws some
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  jabs and hooks in the air, practicing the punches he'll
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  use against his opponent. The audience at boxing matches feels
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  the intensity that comes from each fighter If boxers lose
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  their focus for even one second, they can get hit
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  or even knocked out. To prayer for a fight, Welterweight
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  champion Floyd Mayweather took part in a ten week training camp.
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  Mayweather went to the gym five days a week. He's
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  sparred with numerous boxers. Boxers train hard because they test
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  their physical and mental limits each time they box. Fans
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  enjoy watching these athletes show their strength and their skill.
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  They admire the risk boxer's take and may appreciate how
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  hard boxers train. Supporters watch their favorite fighters and feel
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  pride in their athleticism and dedication. Boxing uses the ten
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  point must system to score a fight. A fighter wins
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  the match if he knocks out his opponent. If by
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  the end of the twelve rounds both fighters still stand,
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  the fight is said to have gone the distance. If
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  this happens, three judges decide the winner. Judges award a
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  point for hard, clean punches. Boxers must also should show
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  good defense. Fighters lose at least one point each time
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  they are knocked down. They also lose the point if
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  they foul the other fighter. Fighters can win a match
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  three ways. Unanum's decision means that all three judges gave
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  the most points to the same fighter. With a split decision,
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  two judges to Claire a winner, and the third judge
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  claims the opponent one. A majority decision occurs when two
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  judges to Claire win while a third calls a draw.
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  If all the judges say the fighters thought equally well,
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  the fight is ruled a draw. One of the most
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  well known fighters was Cassius Clay. He fought sixty one
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  bouts and won fifty six of them. Of those, thirty
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  seven were knockouts. He won his first nineteen fights, fifteen
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  of which were knockouts. In nineteen sixty four, he changed
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  his name to Muhammad Ali. Despite his different names, most
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  people knew him simply as the Greatest. Unlike other heavyweight boxers,
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  Ali was quick and he threw hard punches. Ali was
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  good enough to hit hard and move fast, a rare
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  ability for a boxer the anchor punch. Aside from Ali's
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  legendary quick footwork, he perfected the anchor punch. Fans at
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  the match called it the phantom punch because Ali threw
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  it so quickly hardly anyone actually saw it. On May
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  twenty fifth, nineteen sixty five, Olli fought Sonny Liston to
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  defend his heavyweight championship. As Listen threw a punch, Ollie
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  planted his foot firmly on the ground and punched over
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  Liston's outstretched arm. His overhand strike landed squarely against Liston's jaw.
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  The force of the blow raced Liston's left foot off
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  the chemist and dumped him in a heap by the ropes.
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  It took Liston two tries to get up. The referee
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  restarted the fight. Within six seconds, Olli had punched the
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  Liston several more times, and the referee ended the fight.
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  Fight of the Century, one of the most famous fights
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  of all time, took place between Ali and Joe Frasier
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  in nineteen seventy one. It was called the Fight of
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  the Century. It was one of the only five fights
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  Ali ever lost. The fight went a full fifteen rounds.
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  One of Ali's most famous quotes was about this fight.
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  When asked how quickly he moved in how hard he hit,
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  Ali replied, a fote float like a butterfly and sting
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  like a bee. Chapter two, fastist and political proclamations. After
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  only six years as a boxer, Clay was still an
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  amateur when he entered the nineteen sixty Rome Olympics at
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  age eighteen. He won all four of his fights and
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  became the Olympic light heavyweight champion. Boxing fans took note
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  of Clay's quick and powerful jabs, which to light at
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  onlookers and independent opponents. Clay won his first professional bout
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  on October twenty ninth, nineteen sixty, to police officer Tony Huntsaker,
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  just one month after his Olympic win. Clay opened up
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  a cut over Honsaker's eye, which swelled shut. Clay easily
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  won the fight. Hunsucker praise Clay, saying he's awfully good
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  for an eighteen year old and as fast as a middleweight.
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  Ali was undefeated for the next eighteen fights until the
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  end of nineteen sixty. Three of those wins, fifteen were
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  by knockout. Fans marveled at Ali's speed and nimbleness in
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  its impressive knockout record. On long with boxing, Ali was
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  in the news because he spoke against slavery and how
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  poorly African Americans were treated in the United States. In
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  nineteen sixty one, Oli joined the Nation of Islam, an
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  African American Muslim group, the Nation of Islam or NI,
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  said the violence might be necessary to bring about equality
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  both socially and in the workplace. The group spoke openly
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  about the evils of slavery. They thought that the African
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  Americans should fight against racism in the United States. The
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  NI encouraged African Americans to fight for equality. ALI became
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  friends with Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X, two
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  pioneers of the civil rights movement. Keen and Malcolm X
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  disagreed with how to win black freedom. Keen wanted peaceful protest.
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  Malcolm X was part of the Nation of Islam and
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  to violence if necessary. Clay supported Malcolm X. On February
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  twenty fifth, nineteen sixty four, Clay sought to dethrone Sonny
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  Liston as heavyweight champion. Clay arrogantly claimed that Liston was
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  too ugly to be world champion. The world champs should
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  be pretty like me. Liston couldn't handle Clay's speed and
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  hard punches. One of his eyes was swollen shut. Listen
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  also sprang to shoulder in the fight. Liston refused to
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  fight in the seventh round due to his shoulder in
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  swollen eye, Clay became the heavyweight champion. This one continued
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  Clay's undefeated streak. Ali proved himself with each fight that
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  he was one of the best boxers who had ever lived.
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  The day after he defeated Liston, Clay announced that he
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  had changed his name to Muhammad Ali. A strange friendship,
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  Malcolm X chose to leave the Nation of Islam in
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  nineteen sixty four because he no longer believed in the
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  group's ideas. Since Malcolm X and Ali were friends, Malcolm
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  X fully expected Alli to leave with him. Ali chose
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  to stay. As a result, he became more popular within
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  the group. His friendship with Malcolm X was broken. In
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  later years, Ali wished they could have stayed friends and
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  said loosing the friendship was his biggest regret. Chapter three,
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  The Coward and the Hero. Ali stayed in the news
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  throughout most of the nineteen sixties. This twenty nine straight
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  wins from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty seven. Ali knocked
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  out twenty three of those opponents. African Americans cheered as
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  bravery both in and out of the ring. He fought
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  against tough opponents and won every bout. Politically, African Americans
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  were grateful to have such an influential person addressing slavery
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  and segregation. Younger white Americans favored Ali as well, both
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  for his athletic prowess and for the belief that segregation
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  should in. Both white Americans and African Americans found an
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  unlikely champion in Ali when he refused to fight in
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  the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War began on November one,
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  nineteen fifty five, and ending on April thirtieth, nineteen seventy five.
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  Americans joined the word to fight communists North Vietnam from
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  invading South Vietnam. By nineteen sixty seven, American support for
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  the war was heavily divided. Some Americans wanted to keep fighting, Others,
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  mostly minorities and yon white Americans, fought the draft and
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  called for an end to the battle. On April twenty eighth,
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  nineteen sixty seven, Ali showed up for the draft, but
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  refused to step forward when his name was called. Ali
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  said fighting went against the teachings of the Muslim Holy Book.
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  Ollie worried that African Americans would get hurt if they
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  went to war. Ollie didn't want African Americans to see
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  him sign up to fight because they might feel obligated
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  to fight. Two. He also thought Americans need to focus
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  on racism in the United States first, then he could
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  focus on world affairs. Although many Americans respected his choice,
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  there were several groups of people who called him a
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  coward for non fi for his country. Oli was immediately arrested.
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  He was banned from boxing the United States for three years.
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  Ollie had to pay ten thousand dollars fine to the
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  State of New York. In today's money, that would be
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  almost seventy five thousand. He was ordered to go to
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  prison for five years, but he appealed the decision. Olli
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  never ended up going to prison, However, the New York
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  State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license for three years.
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  The World Boxing Association stripped him of his heavyweight titles.
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  Ali lost millions of dollars for fights he would have
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  fought if he hadn't been suspended from boxing. S Burkes
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  think those years would have been his most successful fighting
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  years since he couldn't fight. Another boxer named Joe Fraser
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  became the heavyweight champion the Medal of Freedom on November ninth,
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  two thousand and five. Former President George W. Bush presented
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  sixty three year old Ali with a Medal of Freedom,
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  the highest of million award in the United States. President
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  Bush supported the Vietnam War, while Ali opposed it. Still,
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  Bush commented, the real mystery, I guess is how he
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  states so pretty. It probably had to do with his
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  beautiful soul. Almost forty years after refusing to fight in
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  the Vietnam War, Ali united Americans in a moment of peace.
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  History repeats. In August twenty sixteen, Colin Kaeberneck, the San
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  Francisco forty nine ers quarterback, refused to stand for the
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  national anthem. It wasn't until his third time sitting that
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  anyone took notice. Cabernack kneeled for the national anthem to
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  bring awareness to the police brutality and racism occurring throughout
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  the country. His actions beare striking resemblance to Muhammad Ali's
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  protest of Vietnam War and his support for the civil
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  rights movement. They were seen as troublemakers, ungrateful with their
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  success at fleets. Both faced punishment for their decision. Kaebernack
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  has been for several games. He was also criticized in
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  the media for disrespecting his country, much like Ali when
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  he refused to fight in the Vietnam War Chapter four,
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  giving Americans hope. And in the late nineteen seventies and
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  into the eighties, Ali's behavior and movements changed significantly. From
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  a swift footed powerhouse, Ali's gate became slow and shuffling.
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  He trembled and shook. Ali's speech slurred, and he had
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  trouble talking. Unable to fight, Oli retired from boxing in
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  nineteen eighty one. It wasn't until three years later, at
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  the age of forty two, that Ali was diagnosed with
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  Parkinson's disease. The diagnosis hit him as hard as the
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  punch as he used to throw. Like a true champion,
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  Ali met the hardship straight on, refusing to back down.
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  Instead of hiding from his disease, Alli once again put
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  himself in the public eye. He drew attention to Parkinson's
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  and called for research into the disease. In nineteen ninety eight,
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  Oli teamed up with Michael J. Fox, a welln actor
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  diagnosed with Parkinson's at age twenty nine years of age.
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  In two thousand and two, they testified before Congress to
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  raise awareness and fund research for the disease. The Muhammad
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  Alili Parkinson Center was set up in Ali's honor to
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  help those with Parkinson's. A patient of the center said
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  of Ali, He's such a fighter, not just in the ring,
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  but in his life. It's an inspiration to asaul. Ali
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  also spent considerable time working with underdeveloped countries. Nineteen ninety
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  eighty traveled to Cuba with Disarmed Education Fund. The fund
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  uses donations and celebrity volunteers to encourage governments to focus
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  on the rights and needs of their citizens. Ali worked
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  with the Disarmed Education Fund to deliver one point two
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  million worth of food and medicine to the Cuban people.
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  The Cuban President, Fidel Castro, called Ali's visit a great
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  moral gesture. Ali saw the visit as an opportunity to
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  protest the American embargo of Cuban goods. Muhammad Ali received
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  an audience with Pope John Paul the Second and the
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  Vatican in nineteen eighty two. He met with the Dali
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  Lama in two thousand and three to dedicate the Field
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  of Compassion inter Faith Temple in Bloomington, Indiana. Although a
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  devout Muslim, Ali wanted these leaders to talk openly about
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  their experiences and cultures. He hoped the discussion would lead
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  to a greater understanding and tolerance of other cultures and beliefs.
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  In nineteen ninety, Ali used his fame to negotiate and
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  return fifteen hostages trapped in Iraq. Many Americans were not
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  sure that Ali would succeed. They feared those people would
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  get hurt. However, Ali did amazing work and saved every hostage.
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  Many Americans were proud that he used his fame to
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  protect his fellow Americans. Messenger of Peace Messenger of Peace
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  are people from different fields such as art, literature, music,
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  and sports, who promote good will between nations. These volunteers
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  donate their time and talent to raise awareness of the
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  United Nations. They work with the United Nations to bring
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  good will and peace to foreign nations. They work to
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  make sure citizens are safe and healthy. Ali was named
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  a Messenger of Peace in two thousand and two for
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  his work bringing attention to starving citizens in Afghanistan. Chapter
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  five The Greatest Muhammed Ali had six beliefs he thought
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  were important. They were confidence, conviction, dedication, giving respect, and spirituality.
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  Confidence means that a person believes in themselves and knows
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  that they are good at what they do. Conviction is
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  believe that a person feels very strongly about Dedication is
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  a strong support for someone or something. Giving means that
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  a person shares what they have because they like to
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  be kind and help othersct Respect means that a person
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  accepts others people's ideas and feelings. Spirituality has to do
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  with people believe about their souls or their spirit. Muhammad
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  Ali had very strong feelings about these beliefs. He wanted
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  to teach others about them. He thought it could help
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  people treat each other and themselves better. Ali believed that
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  people should have strong beliefs but also respect other people's beliefs.
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  He sipt the Muhammad Ali Center to teach people how
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  to use these beliefs to inspire others. The center holds
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  many programs designed to enrich the lives of those living
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  in the community. One such program is the Daughters of Greatness.
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  The Ali Center periodically promotes women to talk about the
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  impact they made in different communities. These women range in
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  their careers from social work to acting, to business and investing.
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  The women speaking at these events seek to encourage, inspire,
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  and change the way women think about themselves and how
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  they interact with the world. Another program from the Center
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  was inspired by event from Ali's childhood. When his red
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  bike was stolen. Ali reports to a policeman that he
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  would whoop whoever stole it. The officer, Joe Martin, told
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  Ali he needed to learn how to fight before he
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  could wamp anyone. He trained Ali for the next six years.
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  Ali pursued a career in boxing. He used his saddest
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  as a celebrity to bring awareness to racism in the
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  United States. Although Ali started as a fighter, he became
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  a pathicist inter the world, bringing a message of peace
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  and unity. The Red Bike Moment program helps youth identify
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  a moment in their lives when they feel strong and
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  empowered to make a change in their lives. Youth can
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  share stories with each other and inspire others in the
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  community to find their own Red Bike Moment. Communities can
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  use these moments to impire themselves and serve the needs
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  of their citizens. The Goat. This was one of Ali's nicknames,
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  and it stood for greatest of all time. Ali proved
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  he was the greatest many times, both in his athletic
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  and public life. He was a three time heavyweight champion.
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  He helped countries and people in need. Ali always fought
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  for African American rights, no matter what it costs. He
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  made many choices that certain people disagreed with. Still Ali
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  never changed his beliefs because other people told him to. Timeline,
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  nineteen forty two More Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky,
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  nineteen sixty wins gold at Rome Olympics and wins his
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  professional fight against Tunny Hunts Saker nineteen sixty one. Joins
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  the Nation of Islam nineteen sixty four, defeats Sunny Listen
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  to become the world heavyweight champion and changes his name
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  to Muhammad Ali nineteen sixty seven. Refuses to be drafted
• 18:53
  into the Army. He has stripped of his boxing title
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  and is forbidden from boxing nineteen seventy. Returns to the
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  ring and defeats Jerry Quary nineteen eighty one. Loses' last
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  boxing match to Trevor Berbick nineteen eighty four. Diagnosed with
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  Parkinson's disease nineteen ninety Negotiated the release of fourteen hostages
• 19:18
  with Iraq's leader Saddam Hussang nineteen ninety six likes the
• 19:23
  Olympic Cauldron at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta nineteen
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  ninety eight, traveled to Cuba and donated one point two
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  million worth of food and medicine to the people there.
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  Kofiyanan names Ali a messenger of Peace. Twenty sixteen, Ali
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  dies due to complications of a respiratory illness. Our next
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  book is titled Dancing through Space Doctor May Jemison Source
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  to New Heights and it was published by Albert witt
• 19:54
  Men and Company and it has a copyright year of
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  twenty twenty four. The author of the book is Lydia Lukadus.
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  May's curiosity was as wide as the sky. She spent
• 20:09
  her days questioning, exploring, learning. She absolutely loved science. May
• 20:15
  could not sit still. She spent her days jumping, flipping, rolling,
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  She absolutely loved dance. May spotted science everywhere, from symmetry
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  to gravity. She had more questions than there were stars
• 20:27
  in space. How do rockets fly? What's the black hole?
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  Why can't we see the moon during the day. Her
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  parents encouraged her to find the answers herself. Like a
• 20:37
  true scientist. May spotted corpsography everywhere, from birds, thorn to waves, swirling.
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  She had more dance moves than there were leaves on
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  a tree. She twirled and whirled. She put on dance
• 20:49
  shows at family gatherings. May explore the possibilities of movement
• 20:54
  like a true dancer. In kindergarten, May's teachers asked the
• 20:59
  students what they wanted to be when they grew up.
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  May's arms shot up. I want to be a scientist. Oh.
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  Her teacher's face smile faded. Don't you mean a nurse.
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  May placed her hands firmly on her hips. No, I
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  want to be a scientist. May didn't want to take
• 21:17
  piano lessons like her sister. She wasn't interested in according
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  her karate like her brother. She begged her parents to
• 21:24
  let her take dance lessons. Please, please, please, I really
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  want to do it. May often visited the local planetarium
• 21:31
  with her family. She loved learning about space. It was
• 21:34
  part of science. Sinking into the cushions, she gazed up
• 21:38
  into the universe. The stars dipped and danced around her.
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  She wondered what it would feel like to float among
• 21:44
  those stars. She raised her arms as if she could
• 21:47
  catch them. May pleaded for years until her mother finally
• 21:50
  registered her for dance class. She wanted to try it out,
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  first ballet, then a year later modern dance. May's eye sparkled.
• 21:59
  She raised her arms so she soared through the air.
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  Once May got a splinter stuck in her thumb, it
• 22:05
  got infected. Her finger throbbing, hot tears spilled down her cheeks.
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  Driven by curiosity, she turned to her science books to
• 22:12
  learn how the body copes with infections. Science gave her
• 22:16
  courage to get to Saturday morning ballet class. May had
• 22:21
  to take a train. High off the ground was five
• 22:23
  times per height, heart racing and pump sweating. She marched
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  toward the train, not daring to look down. Dance gave
• 22:30
  her determination. After graduating from high school with honors, May
• 22:35
  received a scholarship to attend Stanford University. She decided to
• 22:39
  focus her scientific studies on chemical engineering. Juggling a full
• 22:44
  course load, she often went to bed at midnight and
• 22:46
  woke up at four thirty in the morning to continue studying.
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  Her mind became strong and sharp. Between classes and after school,
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  May explore different dance styles. She stopped through African dance,
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  shimming her way through jazz, and shuffled through Japanese dance.
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  Her body became strong and muscular. The world of science
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  was not welcoming. There weren't many women in May's class,
• 23:10
  and certainly none who looked like her. Some of her
• 23:12
  professors pretended she wasn't there or belittled her, and when
• 23:16
  she told one of her classmates she wanted to apply
• 23:18
  to be an astronaut, he laughed, you mean like the
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  guys who go to the moon. Give me a break.
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  The world of dance was demanding. Rehearsals were long and rigorous.
• 23:29
  May practice complicated dance moves over and over again. Sweat
• 23:33
  dripped down her forehead as here breathing deepened. She focused
• 23:36
  and tried to remember the next move, then leaped into
• 23:39
  the air to do a grand to tea good. After
• 23:44
  graduating from college, May wondered what to do next. Medicine
• 23:48
  was exciting, was yet another branch of science she was
• 23:51
  curious about. She wanted to learn more about the human
• 23:54
  body and how to cure disease. Dance was energizing. It
• 23:58
  was part of May so and her body to express itself.
• 24:02
  She felt pulled in two different directions, so she decided
• 24:06
  to study them both. You can always dance if you're
• 24:09
  a doctor, but you can't doctor if you're a dancer,
• 24:11
  her mother said, May pursue her studies in medicine. Meanwhile,
• 24:15
  she never stopped dancing. With every flip and every jump,
• 24:19
  her confidence blossomed. After years of hard work and tireless studying,
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  May graduate and earned the title of doctor. She spent
• 24:27
  her days caring for patients. At night, she often gazed
• 24:31
  up at the sky, remembering her frequent visits to the planetarium.
• 24:35
  When she was younger. She still dreamed of dancing through
• 24:37
  space and floating among the stars. Soon after becoming a doctor,
• 24:42
  May apply to nansa's astronaut training program. Her background in
• 24:46
  science and medicine gave her the skill she needed to
• 24:48
  be an astronaut, and then a major disappointment made in
• 24:53
  making into the training program. NANCA put it on home
• 24:56
  because of the recent explosion of the Space Shuttle challenger.
• 25:00
  May's heart sank. One day, May went to work as usual.
• 25:04
  She sat in her office taking notes until it was
• 25:08
  NASA the space program was back on and they had
• 25:11
  chosen her out of more than two thousand applicants. May's
• 25:15
  heart skipped a beat as she grinned from ear to ear.
• 25:19
  For over a year, May endure the challenges and demands
• 25:21
  of astronaut training. She floated in an anti gravity tank
• 25:25
  and memorized hundreds of instructions for space station systems. She
• 25:31
  also handled heavy equipment and practiced countless flight simulations. The
• 25:35
  razor sharp memory and coordination she had developed as a
• 25:39
  dancer helped her with these tough tasks. On September twelfth,
• 25:44
  nineteen ninety two, May blasted into space bore the Space
• 25:47
  Shuttle Endeavor along with six other astronauts. Her heart sort
• 25:51
  as she cow topolted into her dreams. She was the
• 25:55
  first black woman to fly into space. The shuttle orbited
• 25:59
  the Earth in a slow choreography, and gravity melted away.
• 26:04
  May spent the next seven days flipping and rolling, exploring
• 26:07
  and learning as she danced her space and floated among
• 26:12
  the stars. This concludes the children's story hour for today.
• 26:17
  Please join us next time as we will read more stories,
• 26:20
  fables and fairy tales. Thank you for listening, and please
• 26:23
  stay tuned for the Lexton Herald Leader here on RADIOI