Editing Muhammad Ali (section)

===Impact of Ali's draft refusal===
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist [[Jerry Izenberg]], whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Star-Ledger|first=Jerry Izenberg {{!}} For The|date=June 4, 2016|title=Why I called Muhammad Ali my friend|url=https://www.nj.com/sports/2016/06/former_heavyweight_champ_muhammad_ali_dies_the_gre.html|access-date=September 21, 2020|website=nj.com|language=en|archive-date=November 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123200706/https://www.nj.com/sports/2016/06/former_heavyweight_champ_muhammad_ali_dies_the_gre.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolfson |first=Andrew |title=Muhammad Ali lost everything in opposing the Vietnam War. But in 1968, he triumphed |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/19/1968-project-muhammad-ali-vietnam-war/334759002/ |access-date=September 21, 2020 |website=USA Today |language=en-US |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810121610/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/19/1968-project-muhammad-ali-vietnam-war/334759002/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The New York Times'' columnist [[William Rhoden]] wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"<ref name="nytimes1" />

Recalling Ali's anti-war position, [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]] said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent{{nbsp}}... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/abd5427.5952.001kareemabdul-jabbar.html |title=Interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar |publisher=Digital.wustl.edu |date=March 3, 1989 |access-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193616/http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/abd5427.5952.001kareemabdul-jabbar.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. [[Al Sharpton]] spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
{{blockquote|For the heavyweight champion of the world, who had achieved the highest level of athletic celebrity, to put all of that on the line—the money, the ability to get endorsements—to sacrifice all of that for a cause, gave a whole sense of legitimacy to the movement and the causes with young people that nothing else could have done. Even those who were assassinated, certainly lost their lives, but they didn't voluntarily do that. He knew he was going to jail and did it anyway. That's another level of leadership and sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news |title=Muhammad Ali: The man who changed his sport and his country |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36450806 |publisher=BBC |date=June 5, 2016 |access-date=June 22, 2018 |archive-date=June 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617171838/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36450806 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader [[Ralph Abernathy]], who called him "a living example of soul power, the [[March on Washington]] in two fists". [[Coretta Scott King]] added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity".<ref name="Ezra82">{{cite book |last=Ezra |first=Michael |title=Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon |date=2009 |publisher=[[Temple University Press]] |isbn=978-1-59213-661-2 |page=82 |chapter=Muhammad Ali's Main Bout: African American Economic Power and the World Heavyweight Title |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh3rtDyeSAIC&pg=PA82 |access-date=July 24, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031223533/https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh3rtDyeSAIC&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/7470417/muhammad-ali-was-continues-greatest |title=Dundee: Ali was, still is 'The Greatest' |work=ESPN |date=January 17, 2012 |access-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014173453/http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7470417/muhammad-ali-was-continues-greatest |url-status=live }}</ref> Ali's promoter [[Bob Arum]] did not support Ali's choice at the time, but in 2016 Arum stated: "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world. ... He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-ali-arum/former-ali-promoter-bob-arum-recalls-boxers-impact-on-society-idUSKCN0YR01R?mod=related&channelName= |last=Whitcomb |first=Dan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804082551/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-ali-arum/former-ali-promoter-bob-arum-recalls-boxers-impact-on-society-idUSKCN0YR01R?mod=related&channelName= |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |title=Former Ali promoter Bob Arum recalls boxer's impact on society |work=[[Reuters]] |date=June 5, 2016 |access-date=April 24, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary ''[[The Trials of Muhammad Ali]]''.<ref name="Rapold">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/movies/trials-of-muhammad-ali-traces-alis-battle-over-vietnam.html |title=One of His Biggest Fights Was Outside of the Ring |last=Rapold |first=Nicolas |date=August 22, 2013 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 29, 2016 |archive-date=July 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701132100/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/movies/trials-of-muhammad-ali-traces-alis-battle-over-vietnam.html |url-status=live }}</ref>