Cupid and Psyche in the nuptial bower (detail)

Satan in Council, 1868, Gustave Dore

Carl Fischer, Muhammad Ali as Saint Sebastian, 1967

‘(Ali) was deep in thought, mulling the similarities between his own martyrdom and that of the saint he portrayed. “He took his right hand out from behind his back and pointed at each of the arrows,” recalled Lois to Rolling Stone. “Then he’d say the names of the people in this world that were out to get him.” Names of government figures who’d emerged from Ali’s mouth slowly and deliberately: Lyndon Johnson, General Westmoreland, Robert McNamara, and more—one for each of the six wounds.

When the cover hit newsstands, on April 4, 1968, the loaded metaphor wasn’t lost on the American public; readers were shocked and in awe. The same day, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, endowing the image with even deeper significance, and highlighting themes of racial persecution and peaceful protest.’