After Ali, athletes took aim at social causes
Protests, symbolism bring attention to major issues
Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army at a processing center in Houston 50 years ago Friday had immediate consequences.
He was arrested for draft evasion, a charge that carried a maximum five-year sentence and $10,000 fine, stripped of his world heavyweight title belt and saw the New York Boxing Commission revoke his boxing license.
“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” said Ali, who cited his Islamic faith as the reason for being a conscientious objector in the Vietnam War.
He was convicted two months later, although he was not imprisoned as his appeal was adjudicated. While the U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturned the conviction, Ali was unable to obtain a license to box in the USA for three years.
Ali was among a group of athletes who spoke out during the height of both the Vietnam War and Civil Rights and women’s rights movements of the era, a list that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown and Billie Jean King. Here’s a look at additional social protests led by athletes over the decades:
TOMMIE SMITH AND JOHN CARLOS, SUMMER OLYMPICS, OCT. 16, 1968 Raising their black-gloved fists while the national anthem played, Smith and Carlos produced one of the most enduring images in Olympic history after winning track and field medals in the Mexico City Games. The two San Jose State students, wearing black gloves, later said they wanted to show solidarity with all people fighting for equality.
MAHMOUD ABDUL-RAUF’S PRAYER DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM, MARCH 12, 1996 Abdul-Rauf, a guard for the Denver Nuggets, sat out the national anthem — and faced the consequences for doing so — long before Colin Kaepernick mounted a similar protest last year. Then-NBA commissioner David Stern suspended AbdulRauf for one game for his refusal to stand for the anthem before a game in Chicago.
DERRICK ROSE WEARS “I CAN’T BREATHE” SHIRT, DEC. 6, 2014 Rose, a star guard for the Chicago Bulls, wore a shirt that read “I Can’t Breathe” as he warmed up for a game against the Golden State Warriors. Rose wanted to draw attention to the fact that a grand jury in Staten Island, N.Y., declined to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner. Garner died after the officer placed him in a chokehold, and his last words were, “I can’t breathe.”
COLIN KAEPERNICK SITS OUT NATIONAL ANTHEM, AUG. 26, 2016 Kaepernick sat as The Star-Spangled Banner played before a San Francisco 49ersGreen Bay Packers preseason game, a protest he said was designed to draw attention to how people of color are treated in the USA, in particular by police. Kaepernick’s representatives said he won’t mount a similar protest in the 2017 season, but that’s currently a moot point. He remains a free agent after he opted out of his deal with the 49ers.
SERENA WILLIAMS, LEBRON JAMES, DWYANE WADE, CARMELO ANTHONY, CHRIS PAUL AND WNBA PLAYERS, SUMMER OF 2016 Williams, a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, raised her fist in a manner reminiscent of Carlos and Smith after winning her seventh Wimbledon title in July. That same month, James, Wade, Anthony and Paul went on stage at the ESPYs to make a statement about racism and violence as they paid tribute to Ali.