An Army of One

An Army of One

By Expotera
June 7, 2016

On June 20, 1967, Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston,
Texas for refusing induction in the U.S. armed forces.

Ali saw the war in Vietnam as an exercise in genocide.

He also used his platform as the, "Heavy Weight Boxing Champion
of The World" to connect the war abroad, with the war at home,
by saying the following on April 28, 1967:

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand
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 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.

I hold the world heavyweight title not because it was given to me,
not because of my race or religion, but because I won it in the ring.

Those who want to take it and start a series of auction-type bouts
not only do me a disservice, but actually disgrace themselves...

Sports fans and fair-minded people throughout America would never
accept such a title-holder.

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…

If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to
twenty-two million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me,
I’d join tomorrow.

But I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah.

I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs.

So I’ll go to jail.

We’ve been in jail for 400 hundred years.

- Muhammad Ali, April 28, 1967