50 Years of Ali
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
50 years ago, in February 1964, a typhoon struck America in the shape of a new world heavyweight boxing champion. After winning the crown, the champion changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
The name change was hard to digest – even among prominent blacks, including former world heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, and WBA champion boxer, Ernie Terrell.
In 1967, Ali refused to be inducted in the US Army, during the Vietnam War, claiming that he was opposed to war and could not be forced to serve. As a result, his heavyweight boxing title was taken away, along with his passport. But Ali did not back down, even after he was convicted and sentenced to a five-year jail term. After a nearly four-year legal fight through the appeals process, the US Supreme Court, in 1971, ruled unanimously in Ali’s favor. Other black sporting icons like ex-boxing champion Joe Louis and baseball star Jackie Robinson expressed little sympathy for Ali’s stance. Even Martin Luther King chose to steer clear of him.
Ali’s years outside the ring were also years of tumult in America, running parallel with a ferocious anti-Vietnam war protest movement.
Now, two movies, saluting Ali’s stance during those years of upheaval, have made it to the big screen. One is “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” – an inside view of the discussions, arguments, and tensions among the US Supreme Court justices on how to decide the outcome of Ali’s case. The other is “The Trials of Muhammad Ali,”which chronicles Ali’s anti-Vietnam war stance, his embrace of Islam, and his outspoken utterances. This 20 th Century epic saga is must viewing.
Both movies convey agony of the humiliation and injustice endured by Ali and the nobility of his quest for dignity, identity, and equity, when he risked his fame and fortune in a stance of conscience.
2014 is also the 50 th year of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was pushed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Prohibiting discrimination in employment, access to hotels, restaurants, and public services on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin, this important law upheld the fundamental rights of US blacks. Ali was at the epicenter of the tumult and turmoil in America on race, religion, war, and civil unrest.
A true people’s champion, Ali touched universal human issues and his transnational appeal transcended age, gender, and region. His was the most recognizable name and face – and he paid the price.
To the blacks, he always gave a message of clean living, and he saw Islam as a slave-breaking religion. Martin Luther King, at the end, had to publicly admit that “you have to admire his courage.”
Contrast today the impact of 1 man, Ali, standing up, with the prone US Muslim community of 10 million. Muslim youth, if unchecked, could grow up to be the kind of elders who unwisely expose young kids to inappropriate fear and insecurity. Through his audacity and eloquence, Ali proved that, to accomplish big, one needs to risk going down with the ship.
His wife called him the 8 th Wonder of the World. And he was.
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