muhammad ali and the vietnam war

http://www.mslaw.edu

Pulitzer Prize winning sports journalist Ira Berkow talks about his support for muhammad ali when the boxer was stripped of his titles and suspended from boxing for being a conscientious objector to the War in Vietnam. Dean Lawrence R. Velvel interviews Ira Berkow about his new book Full Swing in this episode of the Massachusetts School of Law's Books of our Time.

The full interview is available at http://tinyurl.com/2zxjbn . The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit mslawledu.


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Category:

Sports

Tags:

• boxing
• vietnam
• nytimes
• sports
• berkow
• cassius
• clay

[kiely]

Muhammad Ali fought Liston, Frazier, Norton and Spinks but more importantly, he fought against racism, intolerance and war while he fought for freedom of religion and independent thought. he was a hero. you have no idea what you are talking about. Ali gave up his livelihood and went to prison for what he believed in, he believed that war is wrong. he was a courageous person of integrity.

[Psycnosis]

USA needs people like Ali now that america is in another war to mass slaughter another race...

[willen08]

To call Ali a coward is like to say Michael Jordan was a small guy...First of all to call a guy who fights Liston, Foreman, Shavers...coward is just nuts...would love to see these peolpe who call Ali coward if they would go into a fight against these guys hehe (BTW Ali beat up those guys).

All Ali had to do (the Goverment told him) is to do some exhibitions for the troops...there's no risk on that, but he refused and stood up for his believes.

[nairam89]

Why should Muhammad Ali have fought or died for a country that treated him and the African American population like second class citizens, denying him and them of basic rights as American citizens (before and during the Civil Rights Movement)? This is a question for the people that believe Muhammad Ali is a coward for refusing to join the army.

[RealTalkLippy]

@apestaartje321 spot on! clumz100 is a friggin moron

[Deathclok]

@MegaAntimason Islam had many black slaves. There's a book called "Islam's black slaves" which for the most part were black slaves and trade. They were a free backbone work horse for Muslims. So if Christianity is the white man's religion, ali should've chosen a better religion to his roots, even though though arabic Muslims had slaves just like western christians. He should've went with Voodoo but it probably wasn't as popular.

[wowwow180]

@kiely ameen.

[MegaAntimason]

@Deathclok the arabs never traded black muslims, infact the founder of islam, muhammad first companion was a black slave who was freed by him

[MegaAntimason]

@IMFLORIDA305 the arabs never traded muslim slaves, whether they be arab or black

[apestaartje321]

@CLumz100 I respect the fact that you love your country enough to fight for it, especially in your situation. But your situation is not the situation of Ali in the 60's. Dont you see how ridiculous it is for a government to say: "youre good enough to die for us, but youre not good enough to sit in the front of the bus". You need to think about that.

Its also ridiculous to call him a coward, because he sacrificed more by refusing to go to war.

[CLumz100]

@apestaartje321 Your wrong dude. I would go to war right now If I had the chance. I am what they call a "illegal alien". Not even a citizen yet alone second class one. I have lived in the U.S. since I was eight, and I love this country more than my native. People like you and him are people who should be deported for not loving this country(USA). He was a coward for not fighting for his country. Elvis fought in fact he volunteered!!

[apestaartje321]

@CLumz100 You can call Ali a coward all you want, but it just makes you sound like moron and he will still be remembered as a brave man for sacrificing his carreer and defying the government. Only a class-A idiot would argue that there's anything wrong with refusing to fight a war for a government that calls you a second class citizen.