Army’s Fort Benning
A white soldier was killed, and several others were wounded during, which spread over weeks. The Marine base at Camp Lejeune and the Army’s Fort Benning were the important domestics to witness an unbelievable racial problem. Muhammed Ali once said, “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?” He thought why he should have to go across the world and help murder and burn another poor nation to allow the further dominance for the white people to keep as slaves and to torcher.
He wanted this to all end, he didn’t want this racism anymore He knew that it would cost millions of dollars to fix to take action, but it is for the people. He also said, “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.” He thought that if the war was going to bring freedom and good for people that he would join in an instance, but it doesn’t so he is decided to stand up for his beliefs instead. He didn’t even care about the risk of going to jail by not following orders of the draft.
For those of you who do not know, Muhammed Ali was a boxing champion and very well-known across the country and in the public eye and a strong Muslim.. This led to Ali’s arrest and conviction, taking place in June 1971 was overturned by the US Supreme Court. In March 1967, one month before his scheduled military induction. He explained himself by saying “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…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 22 millions 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 four hundred years.” This man was willing to lose all his fame, money, and tarnish his reputation at the sake of what he believed in.
Ali was even risking jail time to stand up and fight for the rights of black people. He lost a lot because of this. Ali was not allowed to work in America or leave America, Ali was so desperate his manager tried to arrange a bout in Arizona on an Indian reservation just outside the state boxing commissions that wouldn’t let him fight. Although the Pima tribe refused the offer, implying it would defile the memory of Indian veterans who’d fought for their country and didn’t run from the draft.
Ali had declared himself a conscientious objector and refused the draft into the U.S. Army, one of his more famous quotes being, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.” By 1968, 19,560 Americans had died in the Vietnam War and another 16,502 in just that time alone. Also, that same year was the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army stationed at the Tet Offensive. Followed this was a campaign to raise awareness that the war was leading the country into
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