Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942. He got his name Muhammad Ali after entering the Nation of Islam. It was 1964 that Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was publicly announced by the Nation of Islam as Muhammad Ali. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and even some African Americans as a black separatist “hate religion” with a propensity toward violence.