Valerie Jarrett reads @POTUS statement: Ali was “a loud and proud and unabashedly black voice in a Jim Crow world” https://t.co/RZrzwHv2hU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 10, 2016
President Barack Obama was unable to attend the funeral of Muhammad Ali on Friday, but he made sure to pay his respects.
In a statement read by senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, the president praised Ali for his contributions to civil rights in America.
Obama specifically mentioned how Ali inspired "a young, mixed kid with a funny name to have the audacity to believe that he could be anything, even the President of the United States."
It was the end of Obama's statement that perhaps best summed up Ali's cultural impact.
"Muhammad Ali was America. Muhammad Ali will always be America. What a man. What a spirit."
Ali died at the age of 74 on June 3.
