dixonge
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
But I wonder, was Ali's stance purely one of conscience or did he simply believe he could avoid it without paying the consequences?
Did he know that he'd be stripped of his titles and be prevented from fighting for 3-4 years, in his prime?
He certainly wasn't meek when he was expressing his conscience. He talked of his unwillingness to fight "slave masters" in their war against "dark-skinned people."
No need to wonder - it's all just a search away. Here is a quote from a month before his scheduled induction:
No, I am not going ten thousand 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 put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.
But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right 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…
I haven't read biographies so I don't know if he was genuine in expressing his conscientious objector status or he was gambling that he could refuse to serve and get away with it due to his fame.
Because what happened to individuals who refused to serve? How easy or difficult was it to get an exemption due to religious beliefs? Didn't men typically get incarcerated unless they were able to convince the draft board?
He made three separate appeals to be classified as a conscientious objector. All were rejected. He then refused to step forward at his induction and was arrested, then tried and convicted and sentenced. Most of his boxing titles and license were stripped and he was banned. His lawyers appealed and lost, then appealed again. In 1971 the Supreme Court overturned his convictions.
Looking back at the time Muhammad Ali refused the draft in Houston - Houston Chronicle
Certainly Ali inspired many others who objected to the war as well as well as young African-Americans who saw a black star take an heroic political stand.
Ali also was an inspiration to the Civil Rights movement but he doesn't seem to have gone in any marches or make a lot of statements about the movement. Certainly there was overlap between the Civil Rights and anti war movements which might explain why those fighting for Civil Rights in the 60s gravitated to Ali.
He joined the Nation of Islam, which demanded political non-participation (mainly by not voting). His public stance against the Vietnam war came a year before Martin Luther King's. Most of his statements about civil rights were considered a bit too much by most of the existing civil rights organizations. In other words, he was more radical than them.
How Muhammad Ali influenced the Civil Rights Movement - Al Jazeera English