Their fears of a rising movement against the war were well-founded. They also voted 385-19 to make it a federal crime to desecrate the flag. Congress voted 337-29 to extend the draft four more years. The sentence was unusually harsh and deeply tied to a Beltway, bipartisan consensus to crush Ali and ensure that he not develop into a symbol of anti-war resistance. The next day, this was the top-flap story for The New York Times with the headline, “ Clay Guilty in Draft Case Gets Five Years in Prison.” He also used his platform as boxing champion to connect the war abroad with the war at home, saying, “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?”įor these statements, as much as the act itself, Judge Joe Ingraham handed down the maximum sentence to Cassius Clay (as they insisted upon calling him in court): five-years in a federal penitentiary and a $10,000 fine. armed forces.Īli saw the war in Vietnam as an exercise in genocide. On June 20, 1967, the great Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston for refusing induction in the U.S. In an era defined by endless war, we should recognize a day in history that won’t be celebrated on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Muhammad Ali leaves the Federal Court Building after being convicted of refusing to be inducted into the military, June 20, 1967.
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