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Thousands Lined Louisville Streets For Ali Procession

Thousands of people crowded the streets of Louisville on Friday to pay their final respects to boxing legend Muhammad Ali. He died last week at age 74.

A hearse carried Ali's body, followed by nearly a dozen black Cadillacs carrying his family and close friends on a nearly 20-mile procession through Louisville’s West End before stopping at Cave Hill Cemetery, where he will be buried.

“He was the greatest to me, and I love him, man, with all my heart," Michael Holt said.

"I know wherever he goes he’s going to fight negativity, he’s going to fight everything that’s been negative on this earth, and he’s going to be that strong spirit that’s going to take all that negativity and fight it off," said Adeyemi Ruffstar of Washington, D.C.

The procession began on Bardstown Road and headed down the Watterson Expressway to Interstate 65. It then drove south on Ninth Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard, eventually passing Ali’s boyhood home on Grand Avenue before turning onto Broadway and on to Cave Hill Cemetery.

Jacob Ryan is the managing editor of the Kentucky Center for Investigative reporting. He's an award-winning investigative reporter who joined LPM in 2014. Email Jacob at jryan@lpm.org.