Muhammad Ali caused an uproar in America in 1967 when he refused to be drafted into the US Army.
"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,” he said at the time. “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 and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”
Ali was convicted of draft evasion by a jury. He was given a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine. The US government exacted punishment on him by stripping him of his passport and his heavyweight title, and he was banned from fighting in the United States. Public support for Ali diminished and many of his fans turned against him for what they considered disloyalty to his country and flag.
Though Ali would remain out of jail on posted bail while his case was being appealed, he would not obtain a boxing license again until October 1970.
