They were gone in an hour. All 15,000 tickets to Friday’s public memorial service for Muhammad Ali in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., were gone that quickly. Lines stretched around the block, with the crowd shouting “Ali” when the box office opened on Wednesday, a tribute to the spirit of a man whose boxing career was finished before some in the line were born.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), in introducing a resolution this week honoring the life and legacy of Ali, called him “a great American” and “a true champion for humanity,” whose “talents transcended the ring into the global community where he selflessly put the interests of helping others above his own.” Butterfield’s resolution said Ali “stood on principle to end racism and bigotry.”

Principled is not what anyone would call the words and actions this week from Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a recently declared supporter of Donald Trump, to lead the Republican Party presidential ticket in November. Ryan called Trump’s based-on-ethnicity attack on an American judge of Mexican descent hearing a case against Trump University the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” Then he said he is still in Trump’s corner.

In Hollywood, filmmakers often complain that projects with characters of color hit a wall when it comes to finding funding. “Can’t the hero have a white friend?” ask the suits in the front offices of major studios. I thought of that as I watched two African-American men – President Barack Obama and comedian Larry Wilmore – take center stage at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner without a white friend, unless you count Joe Biden.

It is fitting that a report on the status of black women in American politics was released in celebration of the life and legacy of Shirley Chisholm on what would have been the late congresswoman’s 91st birthday.

Chisholm, who died in 2005, was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968. Her barrier-breaking campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1972 contest paved the way for both President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

“Voices. Votes. Leadership. The Status of Black Women in American Politics,”released on Monday by Higher Heights in partnership with the Center for American Women and Politics and Political Parity, discusses both the challenges and opportunities for black women to use their considerable political power to expand their political representation.

The Rev. Leah D. Daughtry, the Chief Executive Officer of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, has a hard act to follow — her own.

She already has plans to make next July’s Philadelphia gathering “the most diverse and the most forward-looking convention that we’ve had in recent history,” she told NBCBLK in a recent conversation. “We’ve got so much technology at our disposal, so many cutting-edge things that are on the horizon that really reflect the way the way people live and work and play in the 21st century.”

Daughtry had history on her side her first time as convention CEO in Denver in 2008, when Barack Obama was nominated to lead the presidential ticket. She understands the challenge ahead.