Muhammad Ali
The Greatest
"Freedom means being able to follow your religion, but it also means carrying the responsibility between being able to choose between right and wrong... I knew that people were dying...for nothing and I should live by what I thought was right."
Born in 1942, in the segregated South, he developed an early awareness of the surrounding social injustice by only seeing only white people in positions of authority. He often questioned his father, "What do the colored people do?". Cassius suffered from dyslexia, and as a result was a poor reader. After initially twice scoring below the mental competency requirements for the U.S. Army, Clay was deemed fit to serve in February 1966. In the same month he requests a deferment form military service citing his religious beliefs. In June of 1967, Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali, is convicted of unlawfully resisting induction. He was sentences to a five year prison term and a fine of $10,000. His boxing license is revoked in every state and beings speaking at colleges across the U.S. in order to support himself. He begins the appeals process of his conviction. Finally, in 1971, the United States Supreme Court reverses his conviction. He retires from boxing in 1979, and again in 1981. He is diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome in 1984 but continues to live a life dedicated to raising the social consciousness. Sadly, Ali passed away in June of 2016 due to complications from Parkinson's.
Ali acknowledges the likely outcome of his conversion to Islam and becoming a conscientious objector.
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
― Muhammad Ali
― Muhammad Ali