What did Muhammad Ali Do in The Civil Rights Movement?

Question

I read the book The Greatest and i have to do a boi sketch and i need to know what Muhammad Ali do in the civil rights movement?

Answer 1

He made racist remarks to Joe Frazier. He cowardly dodged the draft. That's about all you need to know about him.

Answer 2

Muhammad Ali was the brightest sports star in a group of sports stars to convert to Islam during the 60's, and people like Ali, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Jim Brown and others were used to great effect by Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam to legitimatize or at least publicize the Black Muslim movement of the 60's.  The racial injustices of segregation, and the bigotry and prejudice of the times made the Black Muslim movement a means of positive Black expression.  The fact that "Whitey" feared an reviled the movement was one of it's greatest recruiting tools. Regardless of your opinion on the group Louis  Eugene Walcott (Later known as Louis Farrakhan) inherited is today, it played a huge role in the political expression of the Black community on the public stage during the Civil rights era.  Ali was its centerpiece along with the other premier athletes of the era.

What most of the morons who spew racist remarks don't realize is, the Civil Rights movement of the 60's helped from more White people than it did Blacks.  Millions more Whites benefited from the efforts of Martin Luther King,  Medger Evers, Rosa Parks and even the Black Muslim movement than did Blacks.  It bothers me that racial bias can still be used as a tool to influence politics, you would think people would be smarter that that.

Barrack Hussein Obama is far superior to John McCain on just about every comparable social issue that matters to the American pubic, but the evil attached to killing fellow human beings and the greed attached to stealing Iraqi oil and jacking up the price of gas to gouge the America people are ignored in favor of the blindness of racial bigotry.  I just don't understand it, but Ali understood the political nature of racism and he fought it as best he could.  He was first and foremost a fighter.

What did Ali do in the Civil Rights Movement?  He fought evil and injustice with all the tools God gave him, harder and in in bigger arena than he ever did as a boxer.  Paid a huge cost for his beliefs without thought to his personal gain, and proved Hemingway right, "a man can be destroyed, but not defeated".  

Ali used the heavyweight championship tile as a weapon against the social and economic injustices of his time.  He became the most recognized American on the globe, his words to dictators freed hostages where military force and political authority failed and he still took the time to play with kids on the street when he came to their neighborhood's whether it was in Detroit or Zaire.

When the time came to oppose the killing of innocent people, he did what any fighter would do.  He saw injustice, and he fought it.  I do not agree with a lot of religious doctrine, but I recognize and respect a great man when I meet one.  Muhammad Ali was a man, he made mistakes just like any other, but the difference was he able to over come his human frailties.  His stand on the Vietnam war transcended race, he spoke for all humanity, and took the responsibility for his decision's like a true American hero.  Agree or disagree all you want with his position, you must respect the man.

I am not a Muslim, I am not Black and I am not historian.  I was a kid trying to get close to a national guard unit to see the tank during the riots of the 60's, I shined shoes in bars from the age of 10, back when people wore shoes that could be shined and saw a lot of stuff back then.  The first time I met Ali I was eight, and a bunch of us kids went to see the Champ at a mosque across the street from our baseball field.  He played with us as we jumped on him walking down the street, and we were just little kids, but he took the time to treat us as people, and we never forgot the encounter.  I ran into him many years later at a boxing event, while he was mid-stage Parkinson's and the same bright intelligence and compassion was clearly still there, in spite of the physical problems.

Muhammad Ali really was the greatest boxer who ever won the heavyweight championship of the world, but he was also great leader of people, and lived his life in a manner that touched millions.  He fought evil, it's that simple.

Answer 3

Very well said Blogbaba....   I had a similar experience with Ali when I was 9.  I met him at Deer Lake.  Your take is very informative.  Though I'm very familiar with much of Ali's career I will take a bow and allow others to read your work.  

I'm very impressed.