The background
Muhammad Ali won the world heavyweight title in February 1964 as Cassius Clay, and shortly afterwards announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam and took the name by which he is now known. In 1964 he had been classified as unfit for service after failing the army’s mental aptitude test. In early 1966 the standards were changed and he was reclassified as eligible, 1-A, for the draft.
His reaction to the news was widely reported. He is commonly quoted as saying that he had “no quarrel with them Viet Cong”, a remark which became a headline, though the precise wording and circumstances are described differently in different accounts. He applied for exemption as a minister of the Nation of Islam and as a conscientious objector. The local draft board in Louisville and later the appeal board did not grant it. For a time the matter continued while he fought, and in the early months of 1967 he defended his title several times, including a bout against Zora Folley at Madison Square Garden in March.
28 April 1967
On 28 April 1967 Ali reported to the armed forces induction centre in Houston, Texas. According to the usual account, his name was called and he was asked to step forward, as the procedure required. He did not, even after the instruction was repeated and he was warned of the consequences. He then signed a statement setting out his objection on religious grounds.
Within hours, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his licence and withdrew recognition of his title, and other boxing bodies followed. He was not yet convicted of anything. Critics noted that the commission’s action came before any court decision, and supporters of the action argued that the title and the licence were privileges of a public sport. The result was that a reigning champion who had not been beaten in the ring lost the title, the means of earning a living through boxing, and, in time, his passport.
The trial and the sentence
The federal case went to trial in Houston in June 1967. Ali was found guilty of refusing induction after a short jury deliberation, and the judge imposed the maximum sentence: five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. His lawyers appealed, and he remained free on bail while the appeal made its way through the courts.
Legal arguments centred on whether the draft board had properly handled his claim. The case raised questions about how sincerity of belief was assessed, whether religious teaching that rejected some wars but not others could qualify, and whether the board had given reasons for rejecting his claim. His critics pointed out that other members of the same faith had been treated differently and that he was a celebrity who could afford a defence. His defenders said that his religion required nonparticipation in wars of this kind and that the government had not shown otherwise.
Years out of the ring
Without a licence, Ali spent most of the next three and a half years unable to fight in the United States. He earned a living through speaking engagements, including on university campuses where audiences were often sympathetic to the antiwar movement, and he made appearances in other media. Public opinion about him was divided. In the earlier part of this period many Americans disapproved of his action, and newspapers were often hostile. As the war became less popular, attitudes shifted, though how far and how quickly is debated. In June 1967 a group of well-known Black athletes met in Cleveland to hear his case, an event often cited as a show of support from within sport.
His situation also illustrated how the Selective Service draft fell on different groups differently, with deferments protecting some young men and not others. It overlapped with the wider pattern of antiwar protests that year, though Ali himself was not a protest organiser in the way that student activists were.
The return and the Supreme Court
In 1970 Georgia licensed Ali to fight, and he returned to the ring in Atlanta in October against Jerry Quarry. A court order requiring New York to restore his licence followed. In March 1971 he fought Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden for the heavyweight title and lost on points after fifteen rounds, a result that did not end the matter, because the legal fight was still pending.
On 28 June 1971 the US Supreme Court overturned his conviction in a unanimous decision of 8 to 0, with Justice Thurgood Marshall taking no part, reportedly because he had been involved in the case earlier as Solicitor General. The court did not rule on the question of whether Ali’s beliefs were sincere or whether such objection should be recognised. It decided on narrower grounds: that the Justice Department’s advice to the appeal board had been flawed, and that it was unclear on what basis the claim had been rejected. The conviction was therefore reversed without any final ruling on the principle.
Ali regained the heavyweight title in October 1974, defeating George Foreman in Zaire. His refusal in April 1967 remains one of the best-known acts of conscientious objection by a public figure, and the episode cost him what are often described as some of his peak years as an athlete. The long-term judgment of historians, and of his own later life, has been far more favourable than the response in 1967.