The King of the World, a Criminal to his Country
Jack Johnson was the first African American heavyweight champion of the world, defeating Tommy Burns in 1908 (Gems 2005). Joe Lewis, the Brown Bomber, reached hero status for knocking out Germany’s Max Schmeling in 1938 (Gems 2005). Although these men made their marks in the history books, it is not until Muhammad Ali that you find an individual that is so in tune with the struggle for others that he would sacrifice his career for a cause greater than himself.
Muhammad Ali is arguably the most famous athlete that ever walked the earth. The Olympic champion and three-time heavyweight champion found few equals in the ring. According to himself, he was too pretty, too fast and indeed king of the world. With all of that fame and skill, it would have been easy for Ali to make his money and leave his people to fend for themselves.
In 1964, the Vietnam War was heating up. Lyndon B. Johnson, the president in 1964, made it his business to quell any discourse that could be seen as unsupportive to the war effort. The nation was trying to promote the war as “the North Vietnamese were the bad guys with the Black hats killing innocent South Vietnamese democrats, while the United States acted as the sheriff’s posse riding to the rescue” (Bowman 2018). Johnson and the federal government made it their business to torpedo anyone who spoke out against the war.
African Americans were over 20 percent of the fatality rate in the war. However, they only made up 10 percent of the entire military force in Vietnam and were 13 percent of the United States population. In 1965, they were one-fourth of all fatal casualties (Calamur 2016). Ali’s fight would be for more than just himself, but for a people, who had not only been oppressed but also sent to die at a disproportionate rate, compared to their eligible peers.
On March 9, 1966, Ali’s draft status was revised so that he would be able to fight in the Vietnam (Calamur 2016). His rational for not joining the United States military was that he was a conscientious objector as well as a minister, which would prevent him from taking up arms. Ali had converted to Islam, joining the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad and the personal mentorship of Malcolm-X. On April 28, 1967, Ali walked into a Houston building that at one time had served as a courthouse. There he refused induction into the military. By not stepping forward and raising his right hand, Ali accepted the fact that he would be tried in federal court (Bowman 2018). The federal government marked Ali as a threat to the social and political mindset of the American people and an effort would be created to make an example out of Ali.
The example of Ali was easily organized and implemented. Of Kentucky’s 641 local draft board officials, only one person was African American (0.2 percent), even though African Americans made up over 7 percent of the state’s population. Out of the 26,900 eligible males for the draft, some 15,410 were “deferred, exempted or disqualified.” Around 200,000 became “accused of draft offenders and twice that number became apparent draft offenders. Ali’s claim that he was a “Conscientious Objector” was a status that was not easily substantiated. Those that were accepted belonged to church organizations that the government felt met certain pacifist qualifications. According to “The Muhammad Ali Draft Case and The Vietnam War”, the Nation of Islam did not have a successful case in terms of granted exemption until Muhammad Ali’s case.
In August 1966, Ali appeared before Judge Lawrence Grauman. Ali claimed that he had been reclassified because of his membership in the Nation of Islam: "Why are they so anxious to pay me $80 a month—me, who in two fights pay for six new jet planes. I pay the salaries of at least 200,000 men a year. I'm fighting for the Government every day." (Harrison 2016). This hearing went well for Ali. Judge Grauman even wrote “the registrant was of good character, morals and integrity and sincere in his objection on religion grounds to participation in war in any form” (Harrison 2016). Hearing this news, the Department of Justice wrote to the appeals board in opposition of Judge Grauman and Ali’s appeal was denied. The judicial fight went on.
On May 8, 1967, Ali was indicted by a federal grand jury and ordered to stand trial. On June 19,1967, the trial began. Judge Joe Ingraham presided over the case. After the arguments were heard, it took the all-white jury 20 minutes to deliberate over the mountains of paperwork and evidence. Ali received a maximum sentence of five years and up to a $10,000 fine (Bowman 2018). Moreover, the government stripped him of his boxing license and had his passport revoked, making it nearly impossible for him to earn a living in the ring. Yet, Ali stood firm. When questioned by reporters, he explained, “What can you give me, America, for turning down my religion? You want me to do what the white man says, to go fight a war against some people I know nothing about, get some freedom for some other people when my own people can't get theirs here?” (Bowman 2018)
In the months to come, Ali would work in a number of avenues to make ends meet. He endorsed a fast food chain called Champ Burger and even worked on a Broadway play, never losing his conviction or his pride. Luckily, “in 1970, Ali had regained the right to fight. An important part of that process came in a federal civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Judge Walter Mansfield found that the New York Athletic Commission had unfairly singled Ali out for sanctions in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause” (Bowman 2018). This ruling allowed Ali to fight again and earn a living. He fought Joe Frazier in a bout that was dubbed “The Fight of the Century.” Unfortunately, the time on the sidelines took a toll on Ali and he lost to Frazier in a grueling match.
Although he was able to continue his boxing career, the legal battle surrounding Ali’s draft status continued. During those months Ali continued to lose in the lower courts and in-turn, he appealed his case to the Supreme Court. There were only eight of the nine justices because the ninth, Justice Thurgood Marshall, “had disqualified himself because he had been the Justice Department’s Solicitor General when Ali’s case originated” (Anderson 2016). After hearing the arguments, the justices convened in chambers and they had a 5-3 vote at first against Ali. While deliberation continued, a Clerk handed John Marshall Harlan, the justice assigned to write the majority decision, a book titled, “The Brethren,” a book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong (Anderson 2016).
After reading the book, the Justice had a better understanding of Islam and its practices. He changed his vote and encouraged the other justices to do the same. At that time, they were at a 4-4 vote which would still have sent Ali to prison. Harlan explained that the lower courts had made a technical error in the case and that error made his previous ruling flawed (Anderson 2016). Ali was set free and regained his championship defeating George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle”
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