The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page K7

The Courier-Journal 5,2016 7K or some people, the moment that will define Muhammad Ali into eternity occurred just after 1p.m. on April 28, 1967 in the U.S. Custom House i downtown Houston. his name was called and Ali declined to step forward for induction into the Army. was a coward who was afraid to serve his Mark L.

Cole, a Louisville native and a Virginia state legislator, said in 2004. When another Virginia legislator proposed honoring Ali then, Republican Cole a 1980 graduate of Western Kentucky University rose on the loor of the House of Delegates to offer his view of the champ: Ali was a draft dodger a nd a man of questionable moral character, and I do not think he deserves to be honored by this ut the motion to honor Ali passed on what Cole called fairly close voice ver the decades, the mere mention of his name incited invective against him over his anti-Vietnam War tance. write in protest of House Speaker Greg proposal that a statue of Muhammad Ali be placed in or near the Capitol Rotunda in Ralph Koslik of Louisville wrote to The Courier-Journal in 2011. a braggadocios draft dodger with public money is an insult to every veteran who honorably Historians, politicians, boxing fans and ordinary folks continue to wrestle with the intellectual challenges that A li set in motion that long-ago day in Houston persistent questions of conscience, politics, race and war. It was the most famous conscientious objector case in the country.

Ali, under his birth name of Cassius Marcellus Clay had registered with the Selective Service on April 18, 1960, three months and one day after his 18th birthday. And in 1964, he was lassified as 1-Y ineligible because of his low scores on mental acu- i ty tests. But in early 1966, draft eligibility tandards were lowered and Local Board No. 47 in Louisville reclassified Ali by then the world heavyweight hampion and a follower of Elijah Nation of Islam as 1-A. Ali then filed Form 150 the ial Form for Conscientious the local draft board on Feb.

28, 1 966, initiating what would become five years of convolutions with the Selective Service and the courts. nder the law, Ali had to meet three tests: He had to show that he was conscientiously opposed to in any not just the one the U.S. was ighting at the time in Vietnam; that is opposition was based on religious training; and that it was sincere. Local Board No.47 ruled against im. Ali appealed, and despite a find- i ng by a hearing officer that objection was sincere, the U.S.

Department of Justice recommended to the entucky Appeal Board that conscientious objector status be denied and the board complied. Meanwhile, Ali pursued a separate claim, filed Aug. 23, 1966, with Local Board No.47, that he should be exempt from the draft altogether as a minister of the Nation of Islam. The board den ied that claim too as did the Appeal Board for the Southern District of Texas, where Ali had transferred his case a fter moving from Louisville to Houston. ecause of decision not to be inducted on April 28, 1967, a grand jury in Houston indicted him 10 days later.

tates uniformly yanked his licenses to fight, and the World Boxing Association quickly stripped him of his heavy- eight title. Ajury convicted him on June 20, 1967, after a two-day trial, and a judge sentenced him to the maximum five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. ltimately, Ali just barely prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court, according to one account. did not know how close he had come to going to Bob Woodward and Scott Arms trong wrote in their 1979 book, he reporters wrote that the high ourt initially voted 5-3 to uphold onviction, with one justice not participating.

A li had been quoted in the press as aying, am a member of the Muslims, and we go to war unless they are declared by Allah himself. I got no quarrel with them Viet The government had argued hat Ali was thus willing to fight a holy ar, and so did not qualify as one op- osed to in any Also, it argued that his vocation was boxer, not Muslim minister. owever, immediately after the 5-3 vote, a persistent Supreme Court clerk prevailed upon Justice John Marshall arlan who had been among the majority of five to reconsider, Woodward and Armstrong wrote. Harlan id. The 4-4 deadlock reignited the internal debate on the court, and in the nd, in an opinion released on June 28, 1971, all eight participating justices agreed that, because the Justice Department had misstated a point of law in a letter to the Kentucky Appeal oard, conviction could not stand.

In the meantime, Ali had gone three years and seven months without a fight, from March 22, 1967 to Oct. 26, 1 970, when officials in Atlanta became he first to allow him to box. uring that period, Ali became a opular speaker on the college circuit, here opposition to the Vietnam War had blossomed in the years since his ase had begun. A li told The Courier-Journal in 1969 that he had 168 college appearances scheduled for that year, at up to $2,000 per speech. He and his second wife, 18-year-old elinda, were then living in a $65,000 ouse in a middle-class neighborhood i Chicago, with no mortgage, and Ali was driving a the newspaper reported.

I fought in three years, and richer than ever said Ali, then 27. AP FILE During an appearance at California State College in Los Angeles in February 1968, Muhammad Ali exchanges words with a man who questioned him about his religion. THE FIGHT OVER VIETNAM AP FILE Muhammad Ali is escorted from the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station in ouston on April 28, 1967 by Lt. Col. J.

Edwin McKee, commandant of the station, after Ali refused Army induction. Ali was stripped of his heavyweight championship. Draft case remains a heated issue for some JIM ADAMS SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-JOURNAL KEY DATES 28, 1967: Ali declines to step for- ardfor induction into the Army. June 20, 1967 Ali is convicted and sentenced to 5 years and a $10,000 fine. He remains free pending appeal.

Oct. 26, 1970 Amid changing attitudes about the war, Atlanta becomes the first urisdiction to allow Ali to resume boxing. 28, 1971 The U.S. Supreme Court rules strikes down conviction citing a prosecution error..