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The tributes will come fast and furious for Muhammad Ali today and deservedly so. Ali is arguably the most important athlete of the last 100 years. His impact on the sport of boxing pale in comparison to his life as an advocate for social justice and his work as a humanitarian. In 1967 he calmly stood in opposition to the Vietnam War and went to jail for it as a result.
“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.”
ESPN hits on this moment and many others in a tremendous ten-minute tribute narrated by Jeremy Schaap.
