Editing Muhammad Ali (section)

==Draft resistance==
{{See also|Clay v. United States}}
{{Quote box
| quote = My enemy is the white people, not Viet Cong or Chinese or Japanese. {{em|You}} my opposer when I want freedom. {{em|You}} my opposer when I want justice. {{em|You}} my opposer when I want equality. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs—and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won't even stand up for me here at home?
| source = —Muhammad Ali to a crowd of college students during his exile from boxing<ref name="tribune" />
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Ali registered for [[conscription in the United States]] military on his 18th birthday and was listed as [[Class 1-A|1-A]] in 1962.<ref name=foley>{{citation |last=Foley |first=Michael |year=2003 |title=Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance during the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |url=http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/page/337 |isbn=978-0-8078-5436-5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105806/http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/page/337 |archive-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref> In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the [[U.S. Armed Forces]] qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard,<ref name=cmbpi>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K7gzAAAAIBAJ&pg=6900,3388922 |newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel |agency=United Press International |title=Clay may be put into 1-A class today |date=February 10, 1967 |page=13 |access-date=September 7, 2020 |archive-date=August 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807202002/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K7gzAAAAIBAJ&pg=6900,3388922 |url-status=live }}</ref> due to his [[dyslexia]].<ref name="Eig" /> (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!"<ref name=foley /><ref name=neel />) By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A.<ref name="greatath" /><ref name=foley /><ref name=neel>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/page2/s/neel/011221.html |first=Eric |last=Neel |title=Page2 – Muhammad Ali from A to Z |work=ESPN |access-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-date=November 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102230834/http://espn.go.com/page2/s/neel/011221.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.<ref name="Roberts">{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Randy |title=Winning is the Only Thing: Sports in America Since 1945 |date=1991 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |pages=171–172}}</ref>

When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a [[conscientious objector]].<ref name="greatath" /> Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the [[Qur'an]]. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by [[Allah]] or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Network |first1=Warfare History |title=Vietnam War: Muhammad Ali's Draft Controversy |url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/vietnam-war-muhammad-alis-draft-controversy-176177 |website=The National Interest |access-date=February 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117132706/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/vietnam-war-muhammad-alis-draft-controversy-176177 |archive-date=January 17, 2021}}</ref> He also said, "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong."<ref>{{cite book|last=Remnick|first=David|title=King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkvoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA287|date=2014|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|page=287|isbn=9780804173629|access-date=April 23, 2024|archive-date=August 13, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240813181704/https://books.google.com/books?id=vkvoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA287#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand 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?"<ref>{{cite book |last=Haas |first=Jeffrey |title=The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ignjecF9pX4C |year=2009 |publisher=Lawrence Hill Books |isbn=978-1-55652-765-4 |page=27 |access-date=July 24, 2023 |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031223025/https://books.google.com/books?id=ignjecF9pX4C |url-status=live }}</ref> Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name="HauserThomas" /><ref name="Roberts" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Hallett |first=Alison |title=Not So Fast |newspaper=Portland Mercury |url=http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/not-so-fast/Content?oid=10883366 |access-date=December 27, 2013 |archive-date=November 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113170912/http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/not-so-fast/Content?oid=10883366 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nytimes1">{{cite news |last=Rhoden |first=William C. |date=June 20, 2013 |title=In Ali's Voice From the Past, a Stand for the Ages |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/sports/in-alis-voice-from-the-past-a-stand-for-the-ages.html |access-date=February 11, 2017 |archive-date=February 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216135621/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/sports/in-alis-voice-from-the-past-a-stand-for-the-ages.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the [[New York State Athletic Commission]] suspended his boxing license and the [[World Boxing Association]] stripped him of his title.<ref>{{cite news |first=B. F.|last=Kellum|title=Appeals Could Take 18 Months|date=April 29, 1967|newspaper=The Asheville Citizen|page=11|agency=AP|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-cassius-clay-tit/125005902/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=May 20, 2023|archive-date=May 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520095903/https://www.newspapers.com/article/asheville-citizen-times-cassius-clay-tit/125005902/|url-status=live}}</ref> Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years.<ref>{{cite book |title=More Than a Champion: The Style of Muhammad Ali |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hc9tZ7IfUTEC&q=more%2Bthan%2Ba%2Bchampion%2Bprime |isbn=978-0-375-70005-7 |first=Jean |last=Reemstsma |year=1999 |publisher=Vintage |location=New York |access-date=March 14, 2012 |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117105540/https://books.google.com/books?id=Hc9tZ7IfUTEC&q=more+than+a+champion+prime |url-status=live }}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2016}} On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes including [[Jim Brown]], [[Bill Russell]], and [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]], as well as one political leader, [[Carl Stokes]], assembled with Ali at the Negro Industrial Economic Union in Cleveland for what became known as the "[[Cleveland Summit]]" or the "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.<ref>[https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2012/06/gathering_of_stars.html "Remembering Cleveland's Muhammad Ali Summit, 45 years later"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722012500/https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2012/06/gathering_of_stars.html |date=July 22, 2020 }}, Branson Wright for ''[[The Plain Dealer]]'' via Cleveland.com, June 3, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2020.</ref>

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-59c5c0ps Conversation with Muhammad Ali], includes transcript, July 7, 1968, 28:55, [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]]<ref name="wgbhf">{{cite web |title=Conversation with Muhammad Ali |publisher=WGBH, Library of Congress, [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]] (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. |date=July 7, 1968 |url=https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-59c5c0ps |access-date=March 15, 2020}}</ref>
}}

At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21{{nbsp}}minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the [[Military Selective Service Act|Selective Service laws]] by refusing to be drafted.<ref name="greatath" /> After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/698 |title=Cassius Marsellus CLAY, Jr. also known as Muhammad Ali, Petitioner, v. United States. |website=LII / Legal Information Institute |access-date=February 8, 2017 |archive-date=June 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620090024/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/698 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruling. As public opinion began turning against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At [[Howard University]], for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor [[Nathan Hare]] on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.<ref>{{cite magazine |title="The Greatest" Is Gone |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919377-5,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930083637/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919377-5,00.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |page=5 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=February 27, 1978 |access-date=August 4, 2007}}</ref>

On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in ''[[Clay v. United States]]'' overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]] recused himself, as he had been the [[U.S. Solicitor General]] at the time of Ali's conviction).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/698 |title=Cassius Marsellus Clay, Jr. also known as Muhammad Ali, Petitioner, v. United States. &#124; LII / Legal Information Institute |publisher=Law.cornell.edu |access-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-date=June 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620090024/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/698 |url-status=live }}</ref> The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1970/1970_783 |title=Clay v. United States &#124; The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law |publisher=Oyez.org |access-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029185638/http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1970/1970_783 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 1974 interview, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country".<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://tv.cuny.edu/show/dayatnight/PR1010390 |title=Day at Night: Muhammad Ali, legendary boxing champion |time=21:50 |date=February 19, 1974 |publisher=[[CUNY TV]] |access-date=November 5, 2023 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308055658/https://tv.cuny.edu/show/dayatnight/PR1010390 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that [the Vietnam War] wasn't right."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Interview with Muhammad Ali |url=http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/ali5427.0743.004marc_record_interviewer_process.html |access-date=September 21, 2020 |website=digital.wustl.edu |archive-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201010203503/http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/ali5427.0743.004marc_record_interviewer_process.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."<ref>{{Cite news |title=Oprah Talks to Muhammad Ali |language=en-us |work=Oprah.com |url=http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/oprah-talks-to-muhammad-ali_1/all |access-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421183956/https://www.oprah.com/omagazine/oprah-talks-to-muhammad-ali_1/all |url-status=live }}</ref>

===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>

===NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications===
In a secret operation code-named "[[Project MINARET|Minaret]]", the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators [[Frank Church]] and [[Howard Baker]], Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/06/the-hidden-history-of-muhammad-ali/ |title=The Hidden History of Muhammad Ali |first=Dave |last=Zirin |magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |date=June 4, 2016 |access-date=April 17, 2017 |archive-date=February 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224101145/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/06/the-hidden-history-of-muhammad-ali/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite news |first=Ed |last=Pilkington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk |title=Declassified NSA files show agency spied on Muhammad Ali and MLK |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=September 26, 2013 |access-date=April 16, 2017 |archive-date=September 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926154853/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk |url-status=live }}</ref> A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal".<ref name="theguardian.com" />

In 1971, Ali's [[Fight of the Century]] with Frazier was used by an activist group, the [[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI]], to pull off a burglary at an [[FBI]] office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the [[COINTELPRO]] operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.<ref>{{cite web |last=Medsger |first=Betty |url=https://theintercept.com/2016/06/06/in-1971-muhammad-ali-helped-undermine-the-fbis-illegal-spying-on-americans/ |title=In 1971, Muhammad Ali Helped Undermine the FBI's Illegal Spying on Americans |work=[[The Intercept]] |date=June 6, 2016 |access-date=April 17, 2017 |archive-date=April 27, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427235216/https://theintercept.com/2016/06/06/in-1971-muhammad-ali-helped-undermine-the-fbis-illegal-spying-on-americans/ |url-status=live }}</ref>