I Am Ali Page #4

"That's it, I've finished. "

They might be stopping it.

That might be over,

ladies and gentlemen.

Get up there, Joe, get up there.

Get up in the ring.

Get near the microphone.

All you reporters... all you

reporters made it hard on Liston.

Never write about me like that.

Never make me six to one.

You just make me angry. Never,

never make me no underdog,

and never talk

about who's gonna stop me.

Ain't nobody gonna stop me.

No heavyweight in the world's

fast enough to stop me.

- Who's the greatest?

- Who you gonna fight next?

Float like a butterfly,

sting like a bee.

Float like a butterfly,

sting like a bee.

Float like a butterfly,

sting like a bee.

Float like a butterfly,

sting like a bee.

Say, "Float like a butterfly,

sting like a bee. "

- Sting like a fly like a bee.

- Who's your daddy?

Say it. Say it for Daddy.

Float like a bee,

sting like a bee.

- What's your daddy's name?

- Muhammad Ali!

Why do you insist on being

called Muhammad Ali now?

That's the name given to me

by my leading teacher,

the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

That's my original name.

That's a black man name. Cassius

Clay was my slave name.

- I'm no longer a slave.

- What does it mean?

Muhammad means "worthy of all

praises," and Ali means "most high. "

Do you intend to

fight under that name?

Yes, sir. I wanna be called by that name.

I write autographs with that name.

I wanna be known all over

the world as that name.

What attracted you then to

Islam in the first instance?

The Muslim religion is the true

teachings of Elijah Muhammad

right there in America.

No power structure.

Nobody will challenge him.

And the history of ourselves, the

history of our true religion,

our nationality, our names.

See, we don't have our names,

you know.

I notice how proud you all

are, proud of your names.

See, Chinese have names

like Chan, Chong, Lu, Chin.

This is Islamic teachings.

The Russians have names

like Kosygin or Khrushchev.

You have names like O'Connell

or Grady or Kennedy.

And, Africans have names

like Kalumumba, Nkrumah.

And Jews got names

like Weinstein and Goldberg.

And Italians got names like Dundee

and Benvenuti and Marciano.

But we have names like Grady

and Clay and Hawkins and Smith

and Jones and Johnson,

but we are black.

- These are the slave names?

- Yeah.

So when I heard this I knew the truth.

It's history.

So Muhammad Ali is a beautiful black name.

The name of our ancestors.

So when I heard this, I just had to

walk out of the church and Christianity

'cause they never taught us

our true knowledge.

You were born

in nineteen-sixty-what?

- Eight.

- 1968.

Daddy won the title of 1964.

That's four years.

Four years after I won

my title, you were born.

I was in exile at

that time, you know.

They took my title because

I didn't go to Vietnam.

- Do you remember that?

- Yes, sir.

You were too small to

remember, but it's history.

- But I know about it.

- You know about it.

When I was growing up,

he was growing up.

He was younger than me, but he was

a big figure in the Olympics.

He had a tremendous personality.

And he had an attitude

about being black.

And, that was my game.

That's what I was.

The black man has

been brainwashed

and it's time for him to learn

something about hisself.

When you look at television,

you see White Owl Cigars.

White Swan soap. SkinWhite soap.

White Rain hair rinse.

White Tornado floor wax. White

floss toothpaste. You go, he...

They taught him when he was a little

boy that Mary had a little lamb,

his fleece was white as snow.

Then they taught

him about Snow White.

Then there's the White House.

When you look at television, you see

these two cars, one black and one white,

and they put a gallon of gas

in each one...

To see which car

can go the farthest.

And every time the black car stopped

first and the white car just kept going.

So this brainwashes the negro.

See?

I always followed him,

got a chance to know him,

got a chance to work with him.

He was just a part of my life

and, he goes back

as far as my memory goes.

Clay's first taste of military life,

and quite possibly his only one,

was at the induction,

or call-up centre,

at the Old Post Office

building in Houston.

Just before lunch.

It's all over.

But Clay is not telling what

happened in the private ceremony

where one pace forward would have

meant acceptance of the call-up.

Why should me and other so-called

negroes go 10,000 miles,

away from home here in America

to drop bombs and bullets

on other innocent, brown people

who's never bothered us?

And, I will say directly,

"No, I will not go 10,000 miles

to, help kill innocent people. "

Muhammad Ali refused the

draft to go into Vietnam.

He believed it was

an unjust and unholy war.

He said if the Vietnamese came

over and attacked this country,

he would be

the first one to defend it.

John Wooten, the Executive Director

of the Black Economic Union,

I called him because I wanted him

to get the top black athletes

to have a meeting with Muhammad

Ali to give him an opportunity

to tell his side of the story,

because there were so many

rumors about, his life

and not going into service

and his religion.

And we felt that if we got the truth

from him and we believed him,

that we would be a body

that would support him.

And I felt he needed a lot

of support at the time

because he was challenging

the United States Government.

Nine top negro athletes meet

with Cassius Clay

to discuss his

anti-draft stand.

They include Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor,

and former pro footballer Jimmy Brown.

Everybody had a chance to

talk to him, to question him,

to give their opinions,

to give their thoughts.

And it was a fantastic meeting

because at no time did Ali indicate

that he would go into service

under any circumstances.

Says Brown, the champ is sincere

in his religious beliefs.

He believes in his religion and his

stand is based wholly on that.

Clay's induction refusal

cost him his title

and he faces a possible

five-year prison sentence.

He claims exemption as a minister

of the Black Muslim faith.

Each and every individual

there, admired tremendously

because Muhammad Ali had

become a Muslim.

At the time

called a Black Muslim,

and that was a highly

controversial organization.

And anyone that was associated

with them

was going to really feel

the wrath of the system.

The so-called Black Muslims

in America at the time,

Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad.

It was very, very controversial.

Malcolm X was, um, a charismatic man.

A feared man, by many.

The power structure

had successfully created,

the image of the American negro as

someone with no confidence, no militancy

and, they had done this

by giving him images of heroes

that weren't truly militant

or confident.

And now here come Cassius, the

exact contrast of everything

that, was representative

of the negro image.

He said he was the greatest. All

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