By Tom Chamberlain, Oregon AFL-CIO president
1964 America was in the grips of racial segregation. In June of that year, three young men — two white and one black — were killed by the KKK in Mississippi for daring to register Black Americans to vote. It was a time of fear and overt prejudice, which permeated every sector of American life. It was a time of knowing your place and station in society. It was the year when the heavyweight boxing champion converted from Christianity to the Nation of Islam, and changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. When reporters continued to address him as Clay, Ali responded “Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name — it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me.”
In the mid-’60s, young American men were drafted and fed into the war machine in Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of Vietnamese and Americans lost their lives while corporatists made billions. Muhammad Ali refused to submit to the draft even though he was assured he would continue to box and would never serve in Vietnam. Ali refused, even when he was sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary, stripped of his title, and banned from boxing. At his sentencing, Ali made the following statement:
“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.”
On June 3, after fighting Parkinson’s Disease since 1980, Muhammad Ali died. Some will remember his prowess in the boxing ring, the footwork, speed and strength. His wit and razor sharp tongue that would cut foes inside and outside the ring. I will always remember Muhammad Ali as a champion of the people, who could not be bought, who could not be bullied, who stood his ground knowing the ramifications of his actions.
To me, Muhammad Ali will always be an anti-establishment hero refusing to accept the status quo. He made those in power uncomfortable, perhaps a little fearful. He truly deserved the title he cherished so much. He is and always will be the peoples’ champion.
