Muhammad Ali born as Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. Cassius Clay began boxing at age 12 and at age 18 won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics . Even after this Clay was unable to find a job at a local restaurant in Louisville, Louisville was a segregated city. Clay then threw his gold medal into a river to protest the treatment of blacks in the Southern states. Ali became a professional heavyweight boxer. On February 25, 1967 he defeated Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion. Two years later he became Muslim. He dropped his last name to highlight the fact that black Americans who had been slaves were known by their last name. His name was Cassius X. He later changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali defended his world heavyweight title on many occasions then in 1967 Ali was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War but refused to go stating he was practicing his religious beliefs. Ali declared himself a conscientious objector. His refusal caused huge controversy. In the United States Ali was sent to prison, stripped of his heavyweight title, lost his boxing license and had his passport confiscated. The authorities did this to send a message to the general public. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Ali was released from prison on bail while he fought his case in court. Public opinion soon began to change, with many Americans now openly opposing the war. Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds, appalled by the devastation and violence of the war. Others argued that the conflict was a war against Vietnamese independence or an intervention in a foreign civil war; others opposed it because they felt it lacked clear objectives and seemed unwinnable. Muhammad Ali's influence on the black organizers who formed the backbone of the civil rights movement was decidedly positive and far-reaching. Its power as a heroic symbol bridged the entire ideological spectrum of the movement. In a way that no one else could, Ali simultaneously appealed to people and organizations who otherwise would have found little agreement politically. In the words of one organizer, Bob Moses, “Muhammad Ali galvanized the civil rights movement. Parkinson's syndrome severely impaired Ali's speech and motor skills, but he remained active as a humanitarian and goodwill ambassador. No sport has exploited athletes, especially Black athletes, like boxing. The very first boxers in America were African slaves. White slave owners amused themselves by forcing slaves to box to the death while wearing iron collars. Even after the abolition of slavery, boxing became the first sport to be desegregated so that white boxing promoters could continue to exploit blacks and make money off the deep end. racism in American society. Eugenics was used to justify slavery, and the science of the time “proved” that blacks were not only mentally inferior, but also physically inferior to whites. Ironically, early promoters of white fighting unintentionally created a space in which black boxers could destroy white supremacist ideas of society and racial hierarchy. Jack Johnson's 1910 victory against “The Great White Hope” sparked one of the largest nationwide race riots in U.S. history. Because of that embarrassment, in which a black man defeated a white man, Congress passed a law putting theI ban boxing films. With a brief look at the history of boxing, it is evident that the races and cultures that have suffered the most at any given time always tend to produce the greatest champions. Boxing has a tendency to both attract and pray for talent from underprivileged minority communities. Through boxing you can read a direct graph of the less privileged in America. The sport highlights the line of minorities who struggle to climb the ladder, until they succeed, and then disappear from the boxing scene. Significantly, minorities remaining in the ring today are a consequence of still being at the bottom rung of the American economic ladder. There have been waves of underprivileged Jewish boxers, then Irish boxers, Italian-American boxers, African-American boxers and now, more and more Hispanic boxers. In such a violently racist society, the sport of boxing has become an outlet for people's anger. Boxing symbolized a twisted manifestation of the American dream, in which minorities must, quite literally, fight their way out of poverty. The modern image of Muhammad Ali, portrayed by the establishment, is that of a black man dancing in the ring and shouting, “I am the greatest!” His image is now used to sell everything from luxury cars to soft drinks. Despite the establishment's whitewashing of Ali's image, history shows that the real Muhammad Ali was a staunch black nationalist, good friend of Malcolm X, and member of the Black Power group, The Nation of Islam. Ali was undoubtedly the best boxer in history, not only for his successes in the ring, but because he brought the fight against racism and war to professional sports. Muhammad Ali grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, when the black freedom struggle was heating up and beginning to explode. Born Cassius Clay to a house painter and laborer in Louisville, Ali was immersed in America's racist nature from birth. Ali found the answers to American racism in his friend and mentor Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. “X and Ali were one and the same,” wrote journalist J. Tinsley. “Both were young, handsome, intelligent, outspoken African American men who scared the living daylights out of white America during a time when racial tension was the norm.” Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Perhaps Ali's greatest legacy is his voice. Ali's voice was uncompromising in its darkness. His voice was as uncompromising in its rejection of the trappings of wealth and fame as it was in its rejection of a system that unleashed German shepherds on black children. Ali's voice did not seek acceptance. He simply asked to be listened to. For starters, the American press saw Ali's voice as a refreshing change from the unpoetic violence of professional boxing. His antics and nursery rhymes enriched the newspaper columns. However, that editorial position suddenly changed in 1964 when Ali, soon after claiming the heavyweight title, revealed that he had become a black Muslim. The American press then began using Ali's voice to portray him as a racist hothead. The New York Times continued to publish the name of the slave Cassius Clay for years and called him "a nauseating, childish, babbling braggart." White sports writers certainly preferred their Negro athletes tough, quiet, and docile. White America hated his voice, the white press tried to denigrate that voice, and the US government tried to silence his voice completely. White America embraced the most outspoken black athlete in history only after he wasn't.