Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (14 page)

In Utah, news of the WBA decision reached Bill Faversham, head of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, which still held Ali’s contract. Faversham and the rest of the group had hit upon a potential bonanza when their fighter won the title. But now the controversy jeopardized millions of dollars in promotional deals and other traditional financial perks that came with the heavyweight title. Putting on a brave face, Faversham told the media, “I’m amazed that the WBA is trying to take away Clay’s title. He has done nothing illegal or immoral.”

Indeed, the list of heavyweight champions before Ali was filled with criminals and thugs. Sonny Liston himself had served five years in prison for robbery and still consorted with an organization far more sinister than the Nation of Islam, the Cosa Nostra. Yet Ali was singled out for conduct “detrimental to boxing.”

Ali seemed genuinely perplexed. “Ain’t this country supposed to be where every man can have the religion he wants, even
no
religion if that’s what he wants?” he asked in a
Playboy
interview. “There ain’t a court in America that would take a man’s job, or his title, because of his religious convictions. The Constitution forbids Congress from making any laws involving a man’s religion. But they want to take away my title—for what? What have I done to hurt boxing? I’ve
helped
boxing. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t bother with nobody.”

As the controversy threatened to derail what he had worked so long to achieve, Ali’s defenders were few and far between. Two well-known black athletes waded into the dispute. Jackie Robinson was one of the first to rise to Ali’s defense. “Many people have asked me whether I am disturbed because, ideologically, Cassius has taken on a new trainer, Malcolm X,” he wrote in his syndicated column. “Why should I be disturbed? Clay has just as much right to ally himself with the Muslim religion as anyone else has to be a Protestant or Catholic. There are those who scoff at the claim by Muhammad’s Muslims that they represent a religion. These people have a right to their opinion. People who are concerned over Clay’s alliance with the Muslims seem mainly worried lest great flocks of young and adult Negroes will suddenly turn to the Islam ranks. I don’t believe this will happen.” Despite Robinson’s support, he couldn’t quite bring himself to use the new name.

Joe Louis wasn’t quite as open-minded. “I’m against Black Muslims,” he said crankily. “I’ve always believed every man is my brother. Clay will earn the public’s hatred because of his connections to the Muslims. The heavyweight champion is the champion of all people. He has responsibilities to all people.”

Then, on March 24, Ali’s problems reached the floor of Congress—and he won an unlikely defender. An influential senator rose to his feet and launched an eloquent and impassioned defense of the new champion:

Mr. President, I have pointed out before that a wave of intolerance accompanied by a determination to enforce conformity of thought and action on all men was sweeping through the nation. I repeat that intolerance and the demand for conformity poses a serious threat to the rights of every American citizen. Cassius Clay, in common with 180 million other American citizens, has a right to join the religious sect of his choice without being blackmailed, harassed, and threatened with the severe punishment of being deprived of the heavyweight championship. This is an example of the sort of intolerance which grips this country today.

The speaker was none other than Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, an avowed racist and segregationist who believed Martin Luther King Jr. was a traitor to the country. Why, then, would he rise to the defense of a black militant? The words Russell chose to read into the
Congressional Record,
taken from Ali’s recent newspaper interviews, provide a clue to his motivation:

I don’t believe in forced integration … we should stay with our own … tigers stay with tigers, red ants with red ants, Cubans with Cubans …. Why do two Negroes have to go two miles out of the way to a white school, upsetting the whole school …. We believe that forced and token integration is but a temporary and not an everlasting solution to the Negro problem….

Russell unwittingly revealed one of the great ironies of the Black Muslim movement, that they shared a common goal with the racist defenders of Jim Crow and the forced separation of the races. This reality hit home when Malcolm X revealed in his autobiography that on behalf of the Nation of Islam, he personally had negotiated a secret pact with the Ku Klux Klan, in which the white supremacists pledged not to interfere with the Nation of Islam’s activities in the South. FBI files reveal that the Klan sent an annual financial contribution to the Nation of Islam for many years.

In the end, the World Boxing Association’s influence was limited, and its decision carried little weight. Both the New York and Illinois athletic commissions met and voted unanimously to continue recognizing Ali as the world champion, regardless of any action the WBA might take. Melvin Kurewich, chairperson of the New York State Athletic Commission, declared, “Within the limits of the Constitution, the right to freedom of speech and to religious beliefs are inviolate. No title of a world champion has ever been vacated because of religion, race, or religious beliefs.” Ali told reporters, “That New York board is the smartest. It knows I’m the greatest, and that I certainly can’t lose my title outside the ring.”

Nevertheless, the damage was done, the outrage incurred on both sides. For the second time, a black heavyweight champion had stood up to white America and thumbed his nose at its prejudices and preconceptions. In so doing, Ali had provoked a backlash that had not been seen since the boxing establishment turned against Jack Johnson a half century earlier.

Just as one major controversy was deflected, an announcement came from Washington that was about to unleash an even greater firestorm. The day after Ali announced his conversion to the Nation of Islam, J. Edgar Hoover ordered his agents to inquire about the boxer’s draft status. The easiest way to keep a troublemaker in line, he figured, would be to keep him under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam for two years. The same day, the head of Ali’s Louisville Draft Board told reporters the new champion would be “drafted within three weeks.”

However, the results of Ali’s army aptitude tests, taken six weeks earlier, had not yet been compiled. Finally, on March 20, the results were in. C
ASSIUS CLAY REJECTED BY ARMY!
screamed the headlines.

The Pentagon had issued a communique which, according to the
New York Times,
was cleared through command channels “with the care normally attached to the status of missile scientists.” The communiqué announced that the Department of the Army had reviewed Ali’s pre-induction examination and had determined that “he is not qualified for induction into the Army under applicable standards. Tests given Clay included measurements of aptitudes and various skills needed in military service. Clay was given a second test after it was determined that the results of the initial test were inconclusive.”

The official announcement explained that Ali had been tested for aptitude in “various skills needed in military service.” In failing this test, Ali fell into the category of the 18.8 percent of prospective draftees who demonstrate they “lack trainability” for even limited military skills. After taking his first test in January, and failing the mathematical section, Ali had been summoned back in early March to take a second test in Louisville. This time, an army psychologist was assigned to watch him and determine whether he was deliberately attempting to fail. The expert concluded that “Clay tried his best.” Among the questions asked in the mathematical question, two in particular gave him trouble:

1. A man works from six in the morning to three in the afternoon with one hour for lunch. How many hours did he work?

a) 7             b)8                 c)9               d) 10

2. A clerk divided a number by 3.5 when it should be multiplied by 4.5. His answer is 3. What is the correct answer?

a)3.25         b) 10.50         c) 13.75         d) 47.25

Ali was embarrassed by the publicity given his poor results. “I said I was the greatest, not the smartest,” he told reporters. “When I looked at a lot of them questions, I just didn’t know the answers. I didn’t even know how to start about finding the answers.”

Reaction around the country to the news Ali had avoided the army by failing his induction test was almost as outraged and indignant as the announcement of his conversion. “Had I flunked math, I still could have peeled potatoes for the first two months of my army service—which I did,” said Representative William Ayers of Ohio on the floor of Congress. “Anybody that can throw a punch like Cassius ought to be able to throw a knife around a potato.”

A Georgia lawyer started up a “Draft That Nigger Clay” campaign. South Carolina Congressperson L. Mendel Rivers embarked on a speaking tour, crusading to have Ali reclassified. “Clay’s deferment is an insult to every mother’s son serving in the armed forces,” he raged. “Here he is, smart enough to finish high school, write his kind of poetry promote himself all over the world, make a million a year, drive around in red Cadillacs—and they say he’s too dumb to tote a gun! Who’s dumb enough to believe that?” A number of incensed senators and congressmen immediately called for a Senate hearing on the matter.

Behind the scenes, Ali’s handlers were working furiously to deflect the latest controversy. He recalls being approached by Worth Bingham of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, who proposed a compromise. “He told me, ‘Look, Cassius, let’s work this thing out. They don’t want you in the army as much as they want the title back in ‘patriotic’hands. Let’s get them off you. You pick any service you want: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — you name it. We’ll swing a commission.You come out in the reserves, Special Services. You’ll never go near a battlefield. It’s done every day.’” Ali said he’d think it over.

Nobody was more suspicious of Ali’s test results than J. Edgar Hoover, who had been temporarily thwarted in his plan to eliminate the new convert’s national platform and, by extension, that of the Black Muslims. His agents set out to prove that Ali had been faking it. With the help of a sympathetic insider, the FBI obtained Cassius Clay’s high school records. A summary of a report sent to Hoover states:

Person X emphasized that he was furnishing information for the assistance of the U.S. government and did not want the data made public.

Clay re-entered Central High School in September of 1958, and remained until he graduated June 11, 1960. He ranked 376 out of a graduating class of 391. His average grades for the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th years was 72.7.

On January 3, 1957, Clay was given the standard California Intelligence Quotient Test and attained a rating of 83. On February 15,1960, he took a college qualifications test and scored a percentile of 27. That is, 73 per cent of those taking the test scored better than Clay.

Person X advised that, during the time that Clay was attending high school, a passing mark was 70.

Clay earned 16 units, earning them in the following subjects:

Much to Hoover’s chagrin, Ali’s high school academic record seemed to vindicate the Army’s test scores. From this point on, the media seemed to revel in portraying Ali as not very bright. Even some of his liberal sympathizers would regularly refer to him as “unsophisticated,” “lacking book learning” and “childlike.” Never lacking in confidence before, Ali was sensitive about these characterizations. “For a while, I began to believe I was stupid,” he said. He was even more troubled by the fact that public reports said he failed the “mental test,” making him “crazy” in many people’s minds.