Joe Louis (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949 and is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Louis spent twelve years growing up in rural Alabama but moved to Detroit in 1926 after his family was shaken by the Ku Klux Klan. A memorial to Louis was dedicated in Detroit at the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward on October 16, 1986. The sculpture is a 24-foot-long bronze arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high pyramidal framework. It represents the power of his punch both inside and outside the ring. Because of his efforts to fight Jim Crow laws, the fist was symbolically aimed toward the south.