When The World Was in Black & White

Muhammad Ali, The Poet Laureate of The Sweet Science

There was a time, several generations ago, that this blue sky world was a black and white world with no gray in between. There was a right way and a wrong way. There was up and there was down. You towed what ever line you had to tow and you made no waves. But there was a change in the air. Things were starting to evolve and with that evolution came along a self described poet who would become a part of a revolution. He was introduced to the world as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. This poet came along during a time where America had marginalized the men of color as second class citizens who hadn't earned the right to be at the table or to speak the unspoken truth that had been muted for so long in our history.

Here was Cassius Clay, Jr. a brash, self promoting, in your face, bigger than life, large and in charge person who was always speaking and people were listening,. And for those Americans , those Americans who were in charge and controlled the the system, Cassius Clay, Jr. would come to represent a change that they were reluctant and arrogant to accept. When Cassius Clay stepped into the ring and fought Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title in February of 1964, he stepped out of the ring as Muhammad Ali, a man reborn of faith, conviction and purpose.

What happened in the ring in February of 1964 was a prophecy. It wasn't the fact that a title had been won, it was the fact that an icon had been created and a legend was in the making. What Muhammad Ali was as a man would be something of a revolution in the political world and with society as a whole. The press couldn't contain him. He refused their attempts to place him in their box of black athletes where they should accept the graciousness of the press and be humble with your talents because we can easily take that away from you. With the possible exception of Jack Johnson, many black fighters were humble and passive in their championship. They accepted their role and played the game without protest. Ali would not be a party to any of that. But there had to be a way to bring him back in line, to play the game without protest. And that way would be to draft him into the military. But that way turned out to be the detriment to Ali's career.

Ali would come up for the draft and in March of 1966, Ali made this statement, "My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape or kill my mother and father.... How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail."

And so it had begun. They went after Ali for not playing the game. He was stripped of his titles, his license to box was revoked, his only means to making a living was taken away from him. The American system had did something that no other agent could do, it turned Ali into a soldier of peace. Although he fought opponents inside a 23' X 23' ring, he would stand for a just cause of ending a war that would divide a nation and leave behind the scars and toll on life and treasure that took a few generations to heal.

Ali, by all standards, was an anomaly to the sports world. Here was a man who stood his ground on the Vietnam War. His peers in the sports community held a conference with Ali to convince him to honor his duty and serve in the military. But with his calm and resilient command of his presence, he had won over his peers that was unprecedented. This wasn't just about just a war any longer, it was a convergence of idealism, of ways of igniting thoughts, of not just rolling over and accepting your faith. This was who Ali was becoming, not just a boxer, but a symbol of hope, of strength, of character, of integrity.  Ali was the unofficial freedom fighter.    Every athlete today, regardless of color, owes Muhammad Ali a debt of gratitude for forging new terrain to their profession. They should also learn to accept a little humility as they stand on the shoulders of Ali when they accept those huge signing bonus and product endorsement contracts.

In time, The Supreme Court would rule in Ali's favor and overturn his conviction for evading the draft. It came at a cost to him as he was forced into a public exile during the duration of his appeal. Many would argue that he was in his prime and lost out to the boxing world as it moved on without him. But this was Ali, he was never the underdog. He picked himself up and went back to work in spectacular form. He became a champion once again in more ways than one.

And as the black and white world slowly dissolved to color, the twilight of Ali's life was met with challenges. The feet were not as swift any more, the hands were not as steady any longer. Ali's once poetic style had become silent. His body, his once shining temple of physical endurance, had begun to betray him. We saw him now, we remember him then, in this black and white images, of a man standing on top of the world that he had changed...for the better.