Muhammad Ali loved visiting Harlem

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Muhammad Ali was not from New York, but when you talk to people in Harlem you'd never know it.

Paris Blues sits on the corner of 121 Street Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.  Its owner since 1969, Sam Hargress, said the neighborhood would erupt whenever Ali would show up and randomly take a walk through Harlem

Hargress showed us a favorite photo in his blues club, showing Ali with two other boxing greats. He says that as entertaining with his mouth as with his fists, Ali would lure the crowds that gathered with his hypnotic rants.

But as charismatic as the champ was on the streets, it was the fact that he was amongst the first to publicly rail against the unfair treatment of African Americans that won hearts in Harlem.