During the 1960 Olympiad in Rome, Italy, an 18-year-old boxing maven from Louisville, Kentucky walked away from that world event a gold medalist. He had defeated his Russian opponent and was subsequently invited to the winner’s podium to receive his award. That boxing maven was none other than Cassius Clay. A Russian reporter noticed the gleeful young man and approached and asked him a question not about the boxer’s recently completely matched, but about the racial situation in America. Still, the young Cassius Clay responded with these words: “Tell your readers we’ve got qualified people working on that, and I’m not worried about the outcome. To me, the U. S. A. is still the best country in the world including yours. It may be hard to get something to eat sometimes, but anyhow, I aint fighting alligators or living in a mud hut.” Yet despite making such a grandiose statement to that Russian Journalist, the moment that his plane had landed on American soil, Cassius Clay went to a local restaurant (Louisville) and was invariably refused service. The owner of the restaurant blurted out even after Clay’s Olympic status had become known: “I don’t care who he is; I aint serving no niggers in my restaurant! Clay immediately left the restaurant, and walked to the Bridg-Spence Bridge and dropped his Olympic medallion into the water below. It was a defiant act, but one that endeared him to the civil rights movement.

After that act of defiance, Cassius Clay went on to become the heavy-weight champion of the world by defeating Sonny Liston. This main event happened in 1964 during a time when America was getting ready to mobilize American troops in Southeast Asia. It was also about this time that Cassius Clay was drafted into the army and he was ordered to appear at the national draft board in Houston, Texas. Being a modeled citizen and of impeccable character, he complied. He passed the physical requirements with flying colors, but the army told him that he didn’t pass the mental fitness test. So Clay was free to go. But the press had a field day with the results of Clay’s Armed Forces Entrance Examination. Because of the media blitz, Clay who had recently converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam was pressured to take the test again yet declined on the grounds of his Islamic faith.

He became a conscientious objector. And the United States brought charges against the heavy-weight champion of the world. This changed everything including his name: Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and fought a two-year battle in a landmark case that invariably stripped him of his title and sentenced him to four years in prison. Yet Muhammad Ali remained unapologetic about his refusal to go into the army during the Vietnam War. It was a principled stand. It was this stand that caused the leaders of the civil rights movement to form an alliance with Ali and come out strongly against the war in Vietnam.