October 16, 2024 • 43 mins
A season of assassinations sparks a loud cry for change. Young Cassius Clay befriends Malcolm X, joins the nation of Islam, changes his name to Muhammad Ali, and refuses to fight in Vietnam. Meanwhile, James Brown’s Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud becomes an anthem for Black America, and Hugh Masekela escapes the evils of apartheid.
FILM/VIDEO REFERENCES
Nelson Mandela “Ready to Die” speech April 20, 1964 (available on YouTube)
Miriam Makeba UN Address speech March 9, 1964 (available on YouTube)
”The Hate that Hate Produced”, documentary (1959) WNET Mike Wallace (available on YouTube)
BOOK REFERENCES
Muhammad Ali books (Cassius Clay period):
Ali: The Greatest, My Own Story by Muhammad Ali
Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig
King of the World by David Remnick
Hit Me, Fred by Fred Wesley (autobiography)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. President John F.
Kennedy rides in a motorcade with his wife, America's Sweetheart
Jackie Oh with the convertible top down. The crowd that
lines the roadway is underwhelming because it's Texas. John F.
Kennedy's not exactly popular in the state. Yet no one
expects what's about to occur. In the late morning sun,
(00:28):
President Kennedy is shot. The Governor of Texas, John Connolly,
riding with the Kennedys in the convertible, shouts, my god,
they're going to kill us. All the Secret Service rushes
in at one forty Eastern Time, interrupting the soap opera.
(00:49):
As the world turns, there's a news break from veteran
CBS newsman Walter Cronkite. He informs the nation.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
From Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official. President Kennedy died
at one pm Central Standard time two o'clock Eastern Standard time,
some thirty eight minutes ago. Vice President Johnson has left
the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to
(01:18):
where he has proceeded. Presumably he will be taking the
oath of office shortly and become the thirty sixth President
of the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
JFK's death marks the beginning of a season of assassinations.
He will not be the last great man to be
cut down in the sixties, in the prime of his life,
in the middle of his fight. It's a time when
heroes were not only tested, they were martyred. The young
of the US would soon long for strong leadership, for
(01:51):
men and women who inspired them, for someone who made
them feel hope. As the great ones were murdered, they
looked to new leaders, cultural leaders like Muhammad Ali. Welcome
(02:16):
to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the Soul
Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host, Sarah Brenette,
third from iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.
Previously on Rumble.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
From a very early age, he can make people pay
attention with his wordplay.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
He learned from Gorgeous George.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
He won the gold medal as a light heavyweight at
the nineteen sixty Olympics.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
She said, we don't serve negroes, I said, and I
don't need them either.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Just give me the cheeseburger.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
This is a black young person who we can get behind.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Who was so good. He was bad.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Cut my gloves off.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I want to prove to the world there's dirty work afoot.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Cassius Clay becomes the heavyweight champion of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I shook up the world.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Ah pretty, I'm a bad man.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
In the spring of sixty four, twenty two year old
Cassius Clay finally got to enjoy the public attention he'd
so deeply craved, that limelight that gets lavished on a
newly minted celebrity. Yet throughout that same year, the rest
of the United States experienced the shockwaves that tore through
the culture following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in
(03:43):
November of nineteen sixty three. Despite all the unrest, the
culture at large showed little sign of that turbulence. The
beatles I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the music charts,
James Bond in Goldfinger and From Russia with Love were
killing it at the box office, and the show Bewitched,
(04:04):
as well as the long running Western Gunsmoke, kept Americans
glued to their TVs. A pop culture escaped from the
grief that gripped at them. However, there were some signs
of the disruption to come. On April twentieth, Nelson Mandela
gave an impassioned three hour speech in a South African courtroom.
(04:26):
He and other anti apartheid activists were on trial facing
charges of armed rebellion. Mandela offered the rationale for why
the African National Congress chose to move past calls for
nonviolent revolution and instead to take up arms. It's a
foundational moment for South Africa's modern democracy.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
I have dedicated my life to this flock of the
Arctic people. I have fought acast by w nich and
I akged like domication. I have cherished the idea of
a democrat and fe society which all best to get
in how and with equal opportunity. It is an idea
(05:11):
for which I hope to live and to seek relack.
It is an idea for which I am prepared to.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Die freedom or death. The stakes were that high, activists
embroiled in struggles around the world took note. Just one
month after Mandela's speech, a dozen young American men burned
their draft cards at an anti war protest in New
(05:40):
York City. It was unprecedented and would soon become a
powerful and oft repeated symbolic act. By the summer of
sixty four, the Vietnam War was heating up as more
young men were fed into the war machine. On August two,
a US Navy destroyer stationed at the Gulf of Tonkin
was fired upon. In response, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson,
(06:03):
who had stepped into the presidency, to use full military
force against North Vietnam. This marked the official beginning of
US hostilities in the Vietnam War. MLK once said that
a riot is the language of the unheard. At the
end of August, black Philadelphians chose to express themselves in
(06:27):
a full throated uprising against police brutality. Philadelphia exploded in
three days of violence and flames. In October of that
same year, Doctor King was recovering from a bout of
extreme exhaustion in an Atlanta hospital room when his wife,
(06:49):
Coreta told King the surprising news he'd been awarded the
nineteen sixty four Nobel Peace Prize. Accepting the award in
Oslo that December, doctor King credited the civil rights workers
and activists in his mighty Army of Love. He said
the prize signaled that the tide of world opinion is
(07:09):
in aw favle the very next day at the United
Nations headquarters in New York to protest the Cuban revolutionary
leader chaiy Guavarre's speech on the floor of the UN
General Assembly, An incensed critic of the Marxist revolutionary fired
at the UN with a bazooka. With each passing day
(07:31):
in nineteen sixty four, it felt more and more inevitable
that the troubles to come in the country and across
the globe could not be solved with nonviolent resistance. A
fight was brewing under the surface, behind the scenes, off
the television screens. South African singer, songwriter and civil rights
(07:53):
activist Miriam Mikaba also spoke at the UN bravely, honestly,
and with great purpose. Mckiba called out the evils of apartheid.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
I ask you and all the leaders of the rules.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Would you act differently?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Would you keep silent and do nothing if you were
in our place? Would you not resist if you were
allowed no rights in your own country because the color
of your skin is different to that of the rulers.
And if you were punished or even asking for equality.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And what did the nation of South Africa do in response? Punished?
The singer for daring to speak out against the ruling
apartheid government by revoking her citizenship, Mary Mickayble was made stateless,
exiled from her homeland. As my Pops, Zarreon Burnett recalled
of that time, at.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
That point in the early sixties, we knew very little
about South Africa in terms of the internal workings of it.
But we also knew that they had the most similar
situation to us in terms of apartheid, and the white
man already know all that kind of bullshit.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
A decade later, in nineteen seventy four, Miriam Micayba and
Muhammad al Li would be together in Zaiir. She a singer,
he a boxer. Both beloved freedom fighters. But back in
the turbulence of nineteen sixty four, Cassius Clay was new
to standing up against the powers that be. He was
still learning the ropes, so to speak, and like Miriam Micayba,
(09:28):
he knew he needed help to change the world.
Speaker 8 (09:31):
I appeal to you, and through you, to all the
countries of the world, to do everything you can to
stop the coming tragedy.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
The day after Cassius Clay became the heavyweight champion of
the world, he called a press conference in New York City.
Standing there next to the champ was Malcolm X, the
most hated man in America. The shrewd eye minister of
the Nation of Islam nodded along as the new champ
declared he'd changed his name and his religion and that
(10:08):
he would now be known as Cassius X.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Malcolm X was there, and they announced that he had
changed his name to Cassius X. That was fun, because
you know, that's black power shit. You know, like this
is some more shit to fuck with people about. That's
how my pops puts it.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But anyone who saw it all go down would argue
Cassius Clay's conversion to Islam shocked the world, especially someone
who saw it up close.
Speaker 9 (10:32):
My name is Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 10 (10:34):
I'm the son of Jabber Herbert Muhammad and the grandson
of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
According to what Elijah Muhammad recalls of Cassius Clay's surprise conversion,
it wasn't an overnight decision or attracted.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Him when he was even a lot younger, But then
he started attending the meetings.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Cassius Clay and his brother attended their first meeting in
nineteen sixty two. At that meeting, the young charismatic minister
Malcolm X spoke. His words captured Casius Clay's full attention.
These were clearly men who burned with a similar fire.
For the next two years, he continued to attend meetings,
(11:17):
and Brother Malcolm personally guided the young Boxer's instruction in
the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of
the Nation of Islam. In nineteen fifty nine, the Future
Sixty Minutes journalist Mike Wallace produced an hour long TV
documentary called The Hate That Hate Produced, and in it
(11:39):
he focused on the Black nationalism movement and specifically the
Nation of Islam. A young minister named Malcolm X features
prominently in the documentary, and his words shocked the nation
accustomed to the black and Christian leaders of the civil
rights movement. Three years later, by nineteen sixty two, Malcolm
(12:01):
X was a household name, made famous for his professed
hatred against whites and liberals. In a syndicated story from
August nineteen sixty three, Malcolm X says, quote, America is
still a plantation and Uncle Sam is a slave master.
For the next two years, Malcolm X became an ever
(12:21):
present story in the media. He was different, He was unrepentant,
and he was self assured. He called for the separation
of the races and vehemently disagreed with Martin Luther King
Junior's calls for integration and nonviolence. In an interview with
The Charlotte Observer, Malcolm X says, the strongest and best
(12:44):
parts of the tree are its roots, and you never
see them. They are underground. The insinuation being that America
could not see the Black revolution coming for them, and
thus by sixty three Malcolm X was referred to who
as the most hated man in America, treated as a
(13:04):
hate monger, and now he had the new charismatic heavyweight
champion doing his bidding. That sparked the big fear for
both Cassius Clay's white investors in Louisville and his new
found family of faith, the Nation of Islam. They shared
an overarching concern that due to the influence and association
(13:26):
with Malcolm X.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
People would turn against Muhammad. He had already controversial in it.
They call him a lawmark, Braggart and so forth, But
that was his manner of emotium.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So as we already covered Cassius Clay patterned his public
persona after the great early TV star of the nineteen fifties, Gorge.
Speaker 9 (13:45):
To George, it was a wrestler promote themselves, and it
would come just to see him get beat up. But
he would really draw the crowd because of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Gorgeous George taught Cassius Clay that a negative persona is
one thing, but negative press is something wholly different. A
negative persona is just an act. It's fun to root
against a villain when it's a show or sporting event,
but it's different when the villain stalks reality. It's different
when a villain is friends with the most hated man
(14:15):
in America. Yet, Cashius Clay and Malcolm X could not
easily be separated, As biographer Jonathan I suggests, the importance
of Malcolm's presence in Cassius Clay's life cannot be overstated.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well he meets Malcolm X. Here's this young, brilliant orator
who really feels like someone ALI can relate to. I
think Elijah Muhammad inspires him and terrifies him a little bit.
He's in awe, But with Malcolm, he can relate to
this guy like I think it's very much a brotherly relationship,
and Ali is just eager to imitate him, to learn
from him, just to be around him. I think it's
(14:52):
one of the most important relationships in Ali's life.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Lewis Ehrenberg, author of the book The Rumble in the Jungle,
certainly agrees.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Cassius is not only friends with Malcolm X, and is
mentored by Malcolm X, and has some of the views
of Malcolm X, especially the notion that African Americans are
oppressed not only at home in the United States, but
in the colonial and post colonial world, and these two
(15:21):
aspects of oppression are related.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The friendship begins to shape what Casius Clay thinks, and
more importantly, what he says in his many interviews broadcast
around the world. When Cassius Clay first announced his new name,
the champ told the gathered mostly white press, I know.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Where I'm going, and I know the truth, and I
don't have to be what you want me to be.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
He doesn't have to follow the expectations of white politicians,
white leaders, white religious leadership. He's going to do what
he wants. That's a real sign of liberation, and there's
a sense among boxing writers and public intellectuals that this
guy is dangerous. He's speaking his mind.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Almost as soon as Cassius Clay announced his conversion, the
Nation of Islam was divided.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
When Malcolm breaks with the Nation of Islam and begins
to those faith in Elijah Muhammad, a Holly has to
make a choice, and he's still Cassius Clay at that point,
and at first he says he's going to become Cassius X.
And that's very much the influence of Malcolm.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Mohammad phoned the then Cassius
X to instruct him to stay away from his friend
and mentor, Malcolm X, who had fallen out with the
honorable Elijah Mohammad.
Speaker 9 (16:46):
My grandfather censored him. I'm making a statement about the
death as a John Kennedy, Malcolm said that it was
like the chickens coming home the roofs. So he suspended
Malcolm from I'm speaking for ninety days.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Meanwhile, there's now the newly crowned heavyweight champion of the
world who's also a media sensation.
Speaker 9 (17:08):
Ooh, they're all struck by the presidents of Muhammad. You know,
he was a young, very handsome and attractive guy and
respective to my grandfather.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Elijah Muhammad calls ALIDI and tells him he's giving him
this special name, that it's not going to be Cassius Sexts,
It's going to be Muhammad Ali. And this is a
great privilege to have a name bestowed on you by
Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
On March sixth, nineteen sixty four, in a radio address,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad announced that he had anointed the
new heavyweight champion of the World with a full Muslim name,
Muhammad Ali, thus losing the X and any associations with Malcolm.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
This is an honorable name, Mohammad Ali, given to me
by my religious leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
And I would like to say that Muhammad means in
Arabic one who's worthy of praise or one who's praise worthy,
and Ali means the most high.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Just like that, he walked away from Malcolm X, the
champ chose to turn his back on his spiritual brother.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
That's a huge moment in Ali's life. And if Ali
leaves the Nation of Islam and goes with Malcolm, history
might be very different today. Who knows what might have happened.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
His new name and new identity, along with its connection
to a more glorious past in Africa, was a wondrous
feeling for the champ It was a feeling that many
were attracted to, and thus they followed Ali into the
Nation of Islam. The self pride evident in the members
of the nation inspired non members to reconsider their own
(18:48):
blackness and to be proud rather than ashamed of their
past and its associations with slavery.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
In the Americas, the Nation of Islam was sort of
like an awakening period, and it all came at a
very critical time.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
In the sixties.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Whenever Ali spoke of his new faith, he always praised
the Nation of Islam, repeating the teachings of its founder
and connecting their faith to the larger global Muslim community
and the Islamic faith that the enslaved Africans brought with
them to America. The fact that African Muslims were technically
in the Americas before the English became a point of
(19:28):
pride for many black Americans.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
His message was basically, we don't need the whites to
help us do anything. We can do it for ourselves.
We ought to have a sense of dignity, respect, and
know that we're just as capable of anybody else.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Muhammad Ali, the Nation of Islam had a perfect spokesperson,
a black man who embodied the message of the founder,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And by sidelining Malcolm X and
swapping him out with Muhammad Ali, the Honorable Elijah Mohammad
slyly traded quote the most hated man in America for
the irresistibly charming heavyweight champion of the world.
Speaker 9 (20:05):
As far as him taking Malcolm's place, he did take
his place in a sense, and that he was another
very charismatic figure and he loved.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The motive my grandfather in the.
Speaker 9 (20:17):
Ast of Islam, So it just kind of like happened
that way, you know, my grandfather took advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Elijah Muhammad was very savvy. He's aware of how things work.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Most tragically, Malcolm X was assassinated the following year in
February of nineteen sixty five, killed by gunmen from the
Nation of Islam. Amidst the social turbulence of the sixties
(20:52):
and seventies, there were many proud young black men and
women willing to speak up, to use their platform and
their portion of the cultural stage to stand on business.
One of them is integral to this story, Hugh Masekela,
and he will also show up on stage as a
central figure in Zaire in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
Well, my name is Selimma Masekella, and I am the
son of Hugh Masekella, and so that is how I
am related to this world.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Hugh Masekela passed away in twenty eighteen, but Selima remembers
well his father's big personality and his proud legacy.
Speaker 12 (21:30):
My father was a trumpet player, flugelhorn player, singer, activist,
comedian and all around one of the coolest human beings
that you ever met. He was also a product of apartheid.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
For reasons obvious to apartheid, the talented young musician left
South Africa behind for the shores of the United States.
Apartheid was a brutal form of race based depression specific
to South Africa. Beginning in nineteen forty eight, South Africa
created a caste system, whereupon the white minority was legally
(22:07):
enshrined as the ruling social class. Next in the hierarchy
came people of Indian descent, then people of mixed race
called coloreds. Finally, at the bottom, black Africans, the native population.
In order for a minority to oppress a majority the
size of South Africa's Black African population, wholesale systemic violence
(22:29):
was required daily, fierce physically violent repression, but also mental
violence imparted through state power, particularly in law and in education.
That's why in nineteen sixty Ugh Masekela came to America
for a chance at a free life and as an artist,
to claim his place in New York's vibrant jazz scene.
Speaker 12 (22:52):
When he got to New York and we got to
Manhatan School music imagined, like I think it was one
of his second nights in town, and suddenly he's like
rubbing his shoulders with Miles, and he's meeting Monk, and
like all these dudes.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That's Miles Davis and Felonious Monk, two of the greatest
jazz musicians of all time. These men were inventors of
whole subgenres of jazz. And now Hugh Masekela was lucky
enough to be sitting in a club hearing them play,
watching their fingers work, eventually joining them on stage.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
The nieceus like, what is my life. And what was
really interesting about him is that he really wanted to
earn their approval in the style of how he played
and be able to play bebop and like really have
them be like, yeah, you're cool, man. And at a
certain point they were like, Hugh, man, like it's cool
that you can play our shit, but like play your shit.
(23:51):
Give us some of that shit, you know, And they
really kind of helped to give him the license to
be like that it's okay to express himself as an
African in this place in America in New York in
the midst of jazz.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
By the mid sixties, Hugh Masekela relocated to the West Coast.
He played a gig and saw how life was in California.
After that he made all new plans. Hugh Masekela told
Fresh Air host Terry Gross.
Speaker 13 (24:19):
I wanted to play the first Watch Jazz festival of
a fifteen thousand people came and it was like a
record attendant. So I called my friend Stuart Levigne, you
know later became my partner and produced most of My
Love and I said, man, this is the place we
should be coming back.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That was nineteen sixty six. He did indeed stay. Later
that same year, Hugh Masekela recorded his fifth studio album.
He gave it the title The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela.
The cover of the album featured a photo of Masekela
wearing an exaggerated Abraham Lincoln style beard. It was a
(24:57):
visual pun for his newfound free him. By this point
in his life, Hugh Masekela was firmly committed to the
nascent Black power movement, much like Muhammad Ali. By the
late sixties, Hugh Masekela was prepared to.
Speaker 12 (25:14):
Like stand on business. You know, he loved Ali. They
were friends. My father always talked about all you have
to worry about is being you.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Just like Ali, Hugh Masekela was uncompromising when it came
to chasing after what his heart believed in and what
his values instructed him he must do, and he knew
to expect the blows that come from such acts of bravery.
Speaker 12 (25:40):
If you choose to be like, Okay, who do you
all need me to be? And I'll be that, They're
always going to want you to be a little less
this or a little more this so that you can
be more digestible and so The advice that my father
gave me is like, stop being so fucking digestible.
Speaker 9 (25:58):
Man.
Speaker 12 (25:59):
If they can't chew on you, then you know for them.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
There is an inescapable, inarguable truth to that advice. If
you wish to be free, you must never be beholden
to pleasing the passing preference of anyone else. You must
be a difficult bite.
Speaker 12 (26:17):
And that just makes it so much easier. Why trying
to like put new ingredients in the recipe that is you.
It's perfect as you are, but it also is not
for everyone. And the second that you can be like
wholly okay with that is when you actually get to
live freely in your existence.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
On April twenty eighth, nineteen sixty seven, Muhammad Ali reported
to an army based in Houston, Texas to answer the
call of the draft board of the US Armed Forces.
Seated with the other young men all called up to
serve in the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali finally heard his
name ring in the air, Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior. He
(27:09):
remained seated again his birth name was called Cashus Marcella's
Clay Junior. Again, Ali sat silent and still a third time,
his name was read aloud, and again Ali refused to
step forward, so instead, an army officer stepped to Ali.
(27:32):
The officer informed Ali that if he continued to resist
the draft, he would be arrested, He would be tried,
and he would be found guilty of a felony punishable
with five years in a federal prison, as well as
a fine of ten thousand dollars that would be about
ninety five thousand dollars today. Ali's name was called one
(27:54):
last time. When he still refused to step forward and
be inducted into the US Armed Forces, Muhammad Ali was arrested.
With the sound of those handcuffs closing around his very
famous risks, Ali made it official the newly born soul
rebel was indeed willing to risk all that he had
(28:15):
fought to gain to stand on principle. Author Lewis Ehrenberg
has deeply considered the larger questions of Ali's resistance.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
This is obviously really controversial, and the black community is
split over this because the notion is, if you have
a black champion, he is a model citizen, a respectable
person who by his very example could advance civil rights
(28:48):
and freedom for African Americans.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
At the time, civil rights leaders avoided any serious criticism
of the war.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
The notion was that if African Americans served in the
army and the armed forces and served the country, then
they would make it possible for greater freedom for African Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Ali took the other tech.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Muhammad Ali does not follow this model, and he earns
the ire and anger of so many white and black Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
The Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, the famed baseball legend that
broke the color line, bravely defends Muhammad Ali's choice to
resist the draft. Robinson wrote in his syndicated newspaper column, quote,
during my career in sports, I came to learn there
are many writers who like tame negroes who quote stay
in their place. Of course, by backing up his words,
(29:47):
clay Or Ali has clearly demonstrated where his quote place is,
right up there at the top.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
He saw what Ali was doing was serious and was
not the act of a coward or an ignorant person,
but someone who had truly believed in what he was
saying and doing.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
The very same day he refused to enlist.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
The New York State Boxing Commission withdrew his license, which
basically banned him even though he had not yet been convicted.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The World Boxing Association followed suit and stripped him of
his title. Heavyweight Champion of the World was now open
for someone else to claim, but Ali's active defiance only
fortified his growth into what we know him to be,
the people's champ.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
He was willing to stand by his convictions and a
face conviction for draft evasion.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
On April twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, Muhammad Ali was
the heavyweight Champion of the World. The very next day,
he was not, when the New York State Athletic Commission
suspended Ali's boxing license in response to the champ's quote
refusal to submit to induction in the Armed Forces of
the United States and quote. Ali had yet to be
(31:20):
tried or convicted in a court of law. It was
just the Boxing Commission's unilateral decision based on vibes. One
month later, Muhammad Azli's trial began in the U S
District Court of the Southern District of Texas. His case
was heard before a judge and an all white jury,
which by law, was considered to be a jury of
(31:42):
his peers. No surprise, Ali was tried convicted and found
guilty of quote the federal felony of refusing to submit
to induction into the armed forces, and was sentenced to
a term of five years imprisonment For the next three years,
Ali fought to stay out of federal prison. While many
(32:02):
at the time doubted his convictions, his biographer Jonathan Iig,
found Ali's commitment to his principles to be as real
as any true radicals. He has a unique perspective on this,
since Ig is also the author of a Politrer Prize
winning biography on doctor Martin Luther King Junior. That book
is entitled King a Life.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Ali is clearly willing to sacrifice when he refuses to
fight in Vietnamen, and when he's banned from boxing and
his license has taken away and his passport's taken away,
and remember thought it was forever.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Ali had every reason to believe he would never again
set foot inside a professional boxing ring. But not only
that he might also lose his freedom. Ali wasn't just talking,
he was walking.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
And he thought he might go to jail, and he
was prepared to make that sacrifice. It's interesting to think
about a boxer positioning himself as a non violent actor
as an anti war protester, and he's engaged in the
business of violence, but he sees that there's a different
kind of violence in the world and that it pitsman
against man, nation against nation, black against white, and that's
(33:14):
what he's opposed to. It has nothing to do with boxing,
which happens to be his career. I think he's trying
to make the larger point that you know, we're all
God's children, the same argument that King was making.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And thus, like King, Ali would face imprisonment for his convictions.
For three plus years, Muhammad Ali was legally not allowed
to box. He existed in a state of exile. That
also meant he had no income, so Ali had to
dramatically reinvent his life.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
He had a difficult time making money. He went on
the lecture circuit. He appeared at various campuses, and I
heard him at UCLA in nineteen sixty six sixty seven,
and that gained him real stature, and it's something that
carried on through what happened in Zaire and his role
(34:08):
in that fight.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Ali kept fighting from the lectern all across the country,
and he fought to be heard as he debated the press.
Both the sporting press, as well as the larger news
press at home and abroad. It's noteworthy that not long
after Ali came out forcefully against the Vietnam War, MLK
did two on April fourth, nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 11 (34:33):
Over the past two years, as I have moved to
break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak
from the burnings of my own heart, as I have
called for radical departures from the destruction in Vietnam, many
(34:53):
persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path.
At the heart of their concerns, this query has often
loomed large and loud. Why are you speaking about the war,
doctor King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?
Peace and civil rights don't mix? They say? Aren't you
(35:16):
hurting the cause of your people? They ask? And when
I hear them, though I often understand the source of
their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened. For such questions
mean the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment,
or my calling. Indeed, their question suggests that they do
(35:40):
not know the world in which they live.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
In conclusion, Doctor King called for a cease fire. King
also said the Vietnamese people should lead the peace process,
and that a timeline for America's withdrawal should be planned
and announced. Sadly, America would not leave Vietnam for nearly
another half decade. It could be argued that Ali gave
(36:07):
Doctor King cover to publicly oppose the war.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
It certainly helped that Ali came out first, and it
took a hit, and King could learn from that see
the kinds of opposition he would face as a result.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
After his notable anti war speech, both the Washington Post
and New York Times published editorials characterizing King as a
dilettante in the case of world peace, a leader who
had quote diminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country,
and to his people. In other words, stay in your lane, Negro.
But doctor King was no longer willing to stay silent
(36:47):
on Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Both of them, I think linked freedom at home with
freedom abroad, and the notion that you know, you got
brown people killing brown people, and the colonial situation around
the world was linked to the American domestic situation, and
that I think helped radicalize King to a degree.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
If indeed Muhammad Ali helped to radicalize Martin Luther King Junior,
that's what it means to shake up the world. But
as Jonathan I cautions, we can't give Ali all the credit.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Kreda gets the credit more than Ali. Kreda was pushing
him for a long time on the war, and you
can see that that King was heading in that direction,
you know, long before he met Ali.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
We should never steal any credit from Kreta. Yet, also
you can still see how Ali's brave stance was something
that doctor King admired. How could he not appreciate Ali's
expression the love in the face of violence. As far
as expressions of love go, James Brown was the voice
(37:57):
of love for black people. In nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 10 (38:00):
Hi, this is Fred Wesley, James Brown baby famous when
I played in his band that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Same year, Trombonis. Fred Wesley walked into a recording studio
in Los Angeles for his very first recording session with
James Brown and his backing band, the JB's.
Speaker 10 (38:16):
We used to have rehearsal every day. This was my
first time in the band.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
The band leader for the JBS was Alfred p Wee Ellis.
Speaker 10 (38:26):
And we rehearsing this tune. We didn't know what the
name of it was, but it was just a track
that we were doing dad that we had no idea
that it was going to become a great tune. We
were in California in the hotel and they call came
and say they wanted the band to come to the
Vox studio in Los Angeles to do this recording. So
(38:51):
we went to the studio and we rehearsed the same
tune bad Bat It light up.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
But James somehow had the instincts that the song needed
something else to make it feel special, so he went
out on the streets of LA.
Speaker 10 (39:08):
And Jane Brown came in the studio with a bunch
of kids.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
By day.
Speaker 10 (39:13):
We kept doing the thing we were doing, and James
Brown said, say it loud, and if the kid said,
I'm black and I'm proud. So we now knew that
the tune was say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud,
and we kept doing it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That refrain possessed an inarguable eloquence. It said it all,
and it did so with this evident joy.
Speaker 10 (39:37):
It ended up being not an anthem for black people,
you know, because we were proud, but we didn't know
that we were proud of being black.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
As a young black girl, Lola Love knew how different
it felt to be called colored or negro.
Speaker 14 (39:51):
You're talking about the sixties, and prior to that, you
couldn't call a person black, Okay, it with negro. And
then you have that switch where it was say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, and James Brown made that
very popular because all you got to just make a
song and everybody sings it. But it was shifting where
we as black people in America were identifying with the
(40:16):
Mother Continent.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Black was more than the English language version of negro.
It was also a term that black people chose for themselves.
Much credit belongs to Kwame Braithwaite's Blackest Beautiful movement of
the fifties and sixties. Later came newer terms like Afro
American and African American. They offered something new, something else connection.
Speaker 14 (40:41):
I'm a child growing up in that area with all
the Italians, the Irish. You had people who came from
Puerto Rico. They had a home country. But American blacks
did not have a country to connect with. So therefore,
getting to the word black and identifying with that, that
was a step. And then they bought an African American
(41:04):
and so now we have a country that we're connected
to and being able to go to the continent.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
For black Americans, that changed everything. On the next episode
of Rumble, Where's Joe Frazier, Where's the White Folks Champion?
Speaker 3 (41:30):
He keeps relying on these racist tropes to try to
downgrade his opponents, to say that they're not black enough.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
He can promote the fight without calling him a gorilla.
Speaker 11 (41:40):
The Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self
abnegation and say to himself and to the world, I
am somebody.
Speaker 15 (41:53):
Rumble is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumble is written and hosted by Sarah and Burnett. The
third produced and directed by Julia Chriscau. Sound design and
scoring by Jesse Niswanger. Original music by Jordan Manley and t. J. Merritt.
Our Senior producer is Amelia Brock. Series concept by Gary Stromberg.
(42:17):
Executive producers are Jason English, Sean ty Tone, Gary Stromberg,
Virginia Prescott, L. C. Crowley, and Brandon Barr. Production manager
Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley. Additional production by Claire Keating.
Legal services provided by Canoel han Lee PC casting director
(42:39):
Julia Chriscau. Episode two cast Abraham Amka as Muhammad Ali,
Johnny Mack as Doctor Martin Luther King. Junior Casting support
services provided by Breakdown Express. Special thanks to Lewis Ehrenberg.
Check out his book Rumble in the Jungle. It's a
great resource. Also thanks to Jonathan for his book Ali
(43:02):
a Life. And finally thanks to Zarenz pops Zeke, who
grounds this material like no one else. If you like
the show, let us know, like subscribe, leave five star reviews.
It really helps. Also check out our show notes for
a full list of reference materials.
It's November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. President John F.
Kennedy rides in a motorcade with his wife, America's Sweetheart
Jackie Oh with the convertible top down. The crowd that
lines the roadway is underwhelming because it's Texas. John F.
Kennedy's not exactly popular in the state. Yet no one
expects what's about to occur. In the late morning sun,
(00:28):
President Kennedy is shot. The Governor of Texas, John Connolly,
riding with the Kennedys in the convertible, shouts, my god,
they're going to kill us. All the Secret Service rushes
in at one forty Eastern Time, interrupting the soap opera.
(00:49):
As the world turns, there's a news break from veteran
CBS newsman Walter Cronkite. He informs the nation.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
From Dallas, Texas. The flash apparently official. President Kennedy died
at one pm Central Standard time two o'clock Eastern Standard time,
some thirty eight minutes ago. Vice President Johnson has left
the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to
(01:18):
where he has proceeded. Presumably he will be taking the
oath of office shortly and become the thirty sixth President
of the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
JFK's death marks the beginning of a season of assassinations.
He will not be the last great man to be
cut down in the sixties, in the prime of his life,
in the middle of his fight. It's a time when
heroes were not only tested, they were martyred. The young
of the US would soon long for strong leadership, for
(01:51):
men and women who inspired them, for someone who made
them feel hope. As the great ones were murdered, they
looked to new leaders, cultural leaders like Muhammad Ali. Welcome
(02:16):
to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the Soul
Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host, Sarah Brenette,
third from iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This is Rumble.
Previously on Rumble.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
From a very early age, he can make people pay
attention with his wordplay.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
He learned from Gorgeous George.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
He won the gold medal as a light heavyweight at
the nineteen sixty Olympics.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
She said, we don't serve negroes, I said, and I
don't need them either.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Just give me the cheeseburger.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
This is a black young person who we can get behind.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Who was so good. He was bad.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Cut my gloves off.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I want to prove to the world there's dirty work afoot.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Cassius Clay becomes the heavyweight champion of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I shook up the world.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
Ah pretty, I'm a bad man.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
In the spring of sixty four, twenty two year old
Cassius Clay finally got to enjoy the public attention he'd
so deeply craved, that limelight that gets lavished on a
newly minted celebrity. Yet throughout that same year, the rest
of the United States experienced the shockwaves that tore through
the culture following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in
(03:43):
November of nineteen sixty three. Despite all the unrest, the
culture at large showed little sign of that turbulence. The
beatles I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the music charts,
James Bond in Goldfinger and From Russia with Love were
killing it at the box office, and the show Bewitched,
(04:04):
as well as the long running Western Gunsmoke, kept Americans
glued to their TVs. A pop culture escaped from the
grief that gripped at them. However, there were some signs
of the disruption to come. On April twentieth, Nelson Mandela
gave an impassioned three hour speech in a South African courtroom.
(04:26):
He and other anti apartheid activists were on trial facing
charges of armed rebellion. Mandela offered the rationale for why
the African National Congress chose to move past calls for
nonviolent revolution and instead to take up arms. It's a
foundational moment for South Africa's modern democracy.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
I have dedicated my life to this flock of the
Arctic people. I have fought acast by w nich and
I akged like domication. I have cherished the idea of
a democrat and fe society which all best to get
in how and with equal opportunity. It is an idea
(05:11):
for which I hope to live and to seek relack.
It is an idea for which I am prepared to.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Die freedom or death. The stakes were that high, activists
embroiled in struggles around the world took note. Just one
month after Mandela's speech, a dozen young American men burned
their draft cards at an anti war protest in New
(05:40):
York City. It was unprecedented and would soon become a
powerful and oft repeated symbolic act. By the summer of
sixty four, the Vietnam War was heating up as more
young men were fed into the war machine. On August two,
a US Navy destroyer stationed at the Gulf of Tonkin
was fired upon. In response, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson,
(06:03):
who had stepped into the presidency, to use full military
force against North Vietnam. This marked the official beginning of
US hostilities in the Vietnam War. MLK once said that
a riot is the language of the unheard. At the
end of August, black Philadelphians chose to express themselves in
(06:27):
a full throated uprising against police brutality. Philadelphia exploded in
three days of violence and flames. In October of that
same year, Doctor King was recovering from a bout of
extreme exhaustion in an Atlanta hospital room when his wife,
(06:49):
Coreta told King the surprising news he'd been awarded the
nineteen sixty four Nobel Peace Prize. Accepting the award in
Oslo that December, doctor King credited the civil rights workers
and activists in his mighty Army of Love. He said
the prize signaled that the tide of world opinion is
(07:09):
in aw favle the very next day at the United
Nations headquarters in New York to protest the Cuban revolutionary
leader chaiy Guavarre's speech on the floor of the UN
General Assembly, An incensed critic of the Marxist revolutionary fired
at the UN with a bazooka. With each passing day
(07:31):
in nineteen sixty four, it felt more and more inevitable
that the troubles to come in the country and across
the globe could not be solved with nonviolent resistance. A
fight was brewing under the surface, behind the scenes, off
the television screens. South African singer, songwriter and civil rights
(07:53):
activist Miriam Mikaba also spoke at the UN bravely, honestly,
and with great purpose. Mckiba called out the evils of apartheid.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
I ask you and all the leaders of the rules.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Would you act differently?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Would you keep silent and do nothing if you were
in our place? Would you not resist if you were
allowed no rights in your own country because the color
of your skin is different to that of the rulers.
And if you were punished or even asking for equality.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And what did the nation of South Africa do in response? Punished?
The singer for daring to speak out against the ruling
apartheid government by revoking her citizenship, Mary Mickayble was made stateless,
exiled from her homeland. As my Pops, Zarreon Burnett recalled
of that time, at.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
That point in the early sixties, we knew very little
about South Africa in terms of the internal workings of it.
But we also knew that they had the most similar
situation to us in terms of apartheid, and the white
man already know all that kind of bullshit.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
A decade later, in nineteen seventy four, Miriam Micayba and
Muhammad al Li would be together in Zaiir. She a singer,
he a boxer. Both beloved freedom fighters. But back in
the turbulence of nineteen sixty four, Cassius Clay was new
to standing up against the powers that be. He was
still learning the ropes, so to speak, and like Miriam Micayba,
(09:28):
he knew he needed help to change the world.
Speaker 8 (09:31):
I appeal to you, and through you, to all the
countries of the world, to do everything you can to
stop the coming tragedy.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
The day after Cassius Clay became the heavyweight champion of
the world, he called a press conference in New York City.
Standing there next to the champ was Malcolm X, the
most hated man in America. The shrewd eye minister of
the Nation of Islam nodded along as the new champ
declared he'd changed his name and his religion and that
(10:08):
he would now be known as Cassius X.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Malcolm X was there, and they announced that he had
changed his name to Cassius X. That was fun, because
you know, that's black power shit. You know, like this
is some more shit to fuck with people about. That's
how my pops puts it.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But anyone who saw it all go down would argue
Cassius Clay's conversion to Islam shocked the world, especially someone
who saw it up close.
Speaker 9 (10:32):
My name is Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 10 (10:34):
I'm the son of Jabber Herbert Muhammad and the grandson
of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
According to what Elijah Muhammad recalls of Cassius Clay's surprise conversion,
it wasn't an overnight decision or attracted.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
Him when he was even a lot younger, But then
he started attending the meetings.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Cassius Clay and his brother attended their first meeting in
nineteen sixty two. At that meeting, the young charismatic minister
Malcolm X spoke. His words captured Casius Clay's full attention.
These were clearly men who burned with a similar fire.
For the next two years, he continued to attend meetings,
(11:17):
and Brother Malcolm personally guided the young Boxer's instruction in
the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the leader of
the Nation of Islam. In nineteen fifty nine, the Future
Sixty Minutes journalist Mike Wallace produced an hour long TV
documentary called The Hate That Hate Produced, and in it
(11:39):
he focused on the Black nationalism movement and specifically the
Nation of Islam. A young minister named Malcolm X features
prominently in the documentary, and his words shocked the nation
accustomed to the black and Christian leaders of the civil
rights movement. Three years later, by nineteen sixty two, Malcolm
(12:01):
X was a household name, made famous for his professed
hatred against whites and liberals. In a syndicated story from
August nineteen sixty three, Malcolm X says, quote, America is
still a plantation and Uncle Sam is a slave master.
For the next two years, Malcolm X became an ever
(12:21):
present story in the media. He was different, He was unrepentant,
and he was self assured. He called for the separation
of the races and vehemently disagreed with Martin Luther King
Junior's calls for integration and nonviolence. In an interview with
The Charlotte Observer, Malcolm X says, the strongest and best
(12:44):
parts of the tree are its roots, and you never
see them. They are underground. The insinuation being that America
could not see the Black revolution coming for them, and
thus by sixty three Malcolm X was referred to who
as the most hated man in America, treated as a
(13:04):
hate monger, and now he had the new charismatic heavyweight
champion doing his bidding. That sparked the big fear for
both Cassius Clay's white investors in Louisville and his new
found family of faith, the Nation of Islam. They shared
an overarching concern that due to the influence and association
(13:26):
with Malcolm X.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
People would turn against Muhammad. He had already controversial in it.
They call him a lawmark, Braggart and so forth, But
that was his manner of emotium.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So as we already covered Cassius Clay patterned his public
persona after the great early TV star of the nineteen fifties, Gorge.
Speaker 9 (13:45):
To George, it was a wrestler promote themselves, and it
would come just to see him get beat up. But
he would really draw the crowd because of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Gorgeous George taught Cassius Clay that a negative persona is
one thing, but negative press is something wholly different. A
negative persona is just an act. It's fun to root
against a villain when it's a show or sporting event,
but it's different when the villain stalks reality. It's different
when a villain is friends with the most hated man
(14:15):
in America. Yet, Cashius Clay and Malcolm X could not
easily be separated, As biographer Jonathan I suggests, the importance
of Malcolm's presence in Cassius Clay's life cannot be overstated.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well he meets Malcolm X. Here's this young, brilliant orator
who really feels like someone ALI can relate to. I
think Elijah Muhammad inspires him and terrifies him a little bit.
He's in awe, But with Malcolm, he can relate to
this guy like I think it's very much a brotherly relationship,
and Ali is just eager to imitate him, to learn
from him, just to be around him. I think it's
(14:52):
one of the most important relationships in Ali's life.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Lewis Ehrenberg, author of the book The Rumble in the Jungle,
certainly agrees.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Cassius is not only friends with Malcolm X, and is
mentored by Malcolm X, and has some of the views
of Malcolm X, especially the notion that African Americans are
oppressed not only at home in the United States, but
in the colonial and post colonial world, and these two
(15:21):
aspects of oppression are related.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The friendship begins to shape what Casius Clay thinks, and
more importantly, what he says in his many interviews broadcast
around the world. When Cassius Clay first announced his new name,
the champ told the gathered mostly white press, I know.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
Where I'm going, and I know the truth, and I
don't have to be what you want me to be.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
He doesn't have to follow the expectations of white politicians,
white leaders, white religious leadership. He's going to do what
he wants. That's a real sign of liberation, and there's
a sense among boxing writers and public intellectuals that this
guy is dangerous. He's speaking his mind.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Almost as soon as Cassius Clay announced his conversion, the
Nation of Islam was divided.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
When Malcolm breaks with the Nation of Islam and begins
to those faith in Elijah Muhammad, a Holly has to
make a choice, and he's still Cassius Clay at that point,
and at first he says he's going to become Cassius X.
And that's very much the influence of Malcolm.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Mohammad phoned the then Cassius
X to instruct him to stay away from his friend
and mentor, Malcolm X, who had fallen out with the
honorable Elijah Mohammad.
Speaker 9 (16:46):
My grandfather censored him. I'm making a statement about the
death as a John Kennedy, Malcolm said that it was
like the chickens coming home the roofs. So he suspended
Malcolm from I'm speaking for ninety days.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Meanwhile, there's now the newly crowned heavyweight champion of the
world who's also a media sensation.
Speaker 9 (17:08):
Ooh, they're all struck by the presidents of Muhammad. You know,
he was a young, very handsome and attractive guy and
respective to my grandfather.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Elijah Muhammad calls ALIDI and tells him he's giving him
this special name, that it's not going to be Cassius Sexts,
It's going to be Muhammad Ali. And this is a
great privilege to have a name bestowed on you by
Elijah Muhammad.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
On March sixth, nineteen sixty four, in a radio address,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad announced that he had anointed the
new heavyweight champion of the World with a full Muslim name,
Muhammad Ali, thus losing the X and any associations with Malcolm.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
This is an honorable name, Mohammad Ali, given to me
by my religious leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
And I would like to say that Muhammad means in
Arabic one who's worthy of praise or one who's praise worthy,
and Ali means the most high.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Just like that, he walked away from Malcolm X, the
champ chose to turn his back on his spiritual brother.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
That's a huge moment in Ali's life. And if Ali
leaves the Nation of Islam and goes with Malcolm, history
might be very different today. Who knows what might have happened.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
His new name and new identity, along with its connection
to a more glorious past in Africa, was a wondrous
feeling for the champ It was a feeling that many
were attracted to, and thus they followed Ali into the
Nation of Islam. The self pride evident in the members
of the nation inspired non members to reconsider their own
(18:48):
blackness and to be proud rather than ashamed of their
past and its associations with slavery.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
In the Americas, the Nation of Islam was sort of
like an awakening period, and it all came at a
very critical time.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
In the sixties.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Whenever Ali spoke of his new faith, he always praised
the Nation of Islam, repeating the teachings of its founder
and connecting their faith to the larger global Muslim community
and the Islamic faith that the enslaved Africans brought with
them to America. The fact that African Muslims were technically
in the Americas before the English became a point of
(19:28):
pride for many black Americans.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
His message was basically, we don't need the whites to
help us do anything. We can do it for ourselves.
We ought to have a sense of dignity, respect, and
know that we're just as capable of anybody else.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Muhammad Ali, the Nation of Islam had a perfect spokesperson,
a black man who embodied the message of the founder,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And by sidelining Malcolm X and
swapping him out with Muhammad Ali, the Honorable Elijah Mohammad
slyly traded quote the most hated man in America for
the irresistibly charming heavyweight champion of the world.
Speaker 9 (20:05):
As far as him taking Malcolm's place, he did take
his place in a sense, and that he was another
very charismatic figure and he loved.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
The motive my grandfather in the.
Speaker 9 (20:17):
Ast of Islam, So it just kind of like happened
that way, you know, my grandfather took advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Elijah Muhammad was very savvy. He's aware of how things work.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Most tragically, Malcolm X was assassinated the following year in
February of nineteen sixty five, killed by gunmen from the
Nation of Islam. Amidst the social turbulence of the sixties
(20:52):
and seventies, there were many proud young black men and
women willing to speak up, to use their platform and
their portion of the cultural stage to stand on business.
One of them is integral to this story, Hugh Masekela,
and he will also show up on stage as a
central figure in Zaire in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
Well, my name is Selimma Masekella, and I am the
son of Hugh Masekella, and so that is how I
am related to this world.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Hugh Masekela passed away in twenty eighteen, but Selima remembers
well his father's big personality and his proud legacy.
Speaker 12 (21:30):
My father was a trumpet player, flugelhorn player, singer, activist,
comedian and all around one of the coolest human beings
that you ever met. He was also a product of apartheid.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
For reasons obvious to apartheid, the talented young musician left
South Africa behind for the shores of the United States.
Apartheid was a brutal form of race based depression specific
to South Africa. Beginning in nineteen forty eight, South Africa
created a caste system, whereupon the white minority was legally
(22:07):
enshrined as the ruling social class. Next in the hierarchy
came people of Indian descent, then people of mixed race
called coloreds. Finally, at the bottom, black Africans, the native population.
In order for a minority to oppress a majority the
size of South Africa's Black African population, wholesale systemic violence
(22:29):
was required daily, fierce physically violent repression, but also mental
violence imparted through state power, particularly in law and in education.
That's why in nineteen sixty Ugh Masekela came to America
for a chance at a free life and as an artist,
to claim his place in New York's vibrant jazz scene.
Speaker 12 (22:52):
When he got to New York and we got to
Manhatan School music imagined, like I think it was one
of his second nights in town, and suddenly he's like
rubbing his shoulders with Miles, and he's meeting Monk, and
like all these dudes.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That's Miles Davis and Felonious Monk, two of the greatest
jazz musicians of all time. These men were inventors of
whole subgenres of jazz. And now Hugh Masekela was lucky
enough to be sitting in a club hearing them play,
watching their fingers work, eventually joining them on stage.
Speaker 12 (23:28):
The nieceus like, what is my life. And what was
really interesting about him is that he really wanted to
earn their approval in the style of how he played
and be able to play bebop and like really have
them be like, yeah, you're cool, man. And at a
certain point they were like, Hugh, man, like it's cool
that you can play our shit, but like play your shit.
(23:51):
Give us some of that shit, you know, And they
really kind of helped to give him the license to
be like that it's okay to express himself as an
African in this place in America in New York in
the midst of jazz.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
By the mid sixties, Hugh Masekela relocated to the West Coast.
He played a gig and saw how life was in California.
After that he made all new plans. Hugh Masekela told
Fresh Air host Terry Gross.
Speaker 13 (24:19):
I wanted to play the first Watch Jazz festival of
a fifteen thousand people came and it was like a
record attendant. So I called my friend Stuart Levigne, you
know later became my partner and produced most of My
Love and I said, man, this is the place we
should be coming back.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That was nineteen sixty six. He did indeed stay. Later
that same year, Hugh Masekela recorded his fifth studio album.
He gave it the title The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela.
The cover of the album featured a photo of Masekela
wearing an exaggerated Abraham Lincoln style beard. It was a
(24:57):
visual pun for his newfound free him. By this point
in his life, Hugh Masekela was firmly committed to the
nascent Black power movement, much like Muhammad Ali. By the
late sixties, Hugh Masekela was prepared to.
Speaker 12 (25:14):
Like stand on business. You know, he loved Ali. They
were friends. My father always talked about all you have
to worry about is being you.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Just like Ali, Hugh Masekela was uncompromising when it came
to chasing after what his heart believed in and what
his values instructed him he must do, and he knew
to expect the blows that come from such acts of bravery.
Speaker 12 (25:40):
If you choose to be like, Okay, who do you
all need me to be? And I'll be that, They're
always going to want you to be a little less
this or a little more this so that you can
be more digestible and so The advice that my father
gave me is like, stop being so fucking digestible.
Speaker 9 (25:58):
Man.
Speaker 12 (25:59):
If they can't chew on you, then you know for them.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
There is an inescapable, inarguable truth to that advice. If
you wish to be free, you must never be beholden
to pleasing the passing preference of anyone else. You must
be a difficult bite.
Speaker 12 (26:17):
And that just makes it so much easier. Why trying
to like put new ingredients in the recipe that is you.
It's perfect as you are, but it also is not
for everyone. And the second that you can be like
wholly okay with that is when you actually get to
live freely in your existence.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
On April twenty eighth, nineteen sixty seven, Muhammad Ali reported
to an army based in Houston, Texas to answer the
call of the draft board of the US Armed Forces.
Seated with the other young men all called up to
serve in the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali finally heard his
name ring in the air, Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior. He
(27:09):
remained seated again his birth name was called Cashus Marcella's
Clay Junior. Again, Ali sat silent and still a third time,
his name was read aloud, and again Ali refused to
step forward, so instead, an army officer stepped to Ali.
(27:32):
The officer informed Ali that if he continued to resist
the draft, he would be arrested, He would be tried,
and he would be found guilty of a felony punishable
with five years in a federal prison, as well as
a fine of ten thousand dollars that would be about
ninety five thousand dollars today. Ali's name was called one
(27:54):
last time. When he still refused to step forward and
be inducted into the US Armed Forces, Muhammad Ali was arrested.
With the sound of those handcuffs closing around his very
famous risks, Ali made it official the newly born soul
rebel was indeed willing to risk all that he had
(28:15):
fought to gain to stand on principle. Author Lewis Ehrenberg
has deeply considered the larger questions of Ali's resistance.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
This is obviously really controversial, and the black community is
split over this because the notion is, if you have
a black champion, he is a model citizen, a respectable
person who by his very example could advance civil rights
(28:48):
and freedom for African Americans.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
At the time, civil rights leaders avoided any serious criticism
of the war.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
The notion was that if African Americans served in the
army and the armed forces and served the country, then
they would make it possible for greater freedom for African Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Ali took the other tech.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Muhammad Ali does not follow this model, and he earns
the ire and anger of so many white and black Americans.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
The Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, the famed baseball legend that
broke the color line, bravely defends Muhammad Ali's choice to
resist the draft. Robinson wrote in his syndicated newspaper column, quote,
during my career in sports, I came to learn there
are many writers who like tame negroes who quote stay
in their place. Of course, by backing up his words,
(29:47):
clay Or Ali has clearly demonstrated where his quote place is,
right up there at the top.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
He saw what Ali was doing was serious and was
not the act of a coward or an ignorant person,
but someone who had truly believed in what he was
saying and doing.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
The very same day he refused to enlist.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
The New York State Boxing Commission withdrew his license, which
basically banned him even though he had not yet been convicted.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The World Boxing Association followed suit and stripped him of
his title. Heavyweight Champion of the World was now open
for someone else to claim, but Ali's active defiance only
fortified his growth into what we know him to be,
the people's champ.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
He was willing to stand by his convictions and a
face conviction for draft evasion.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
On April twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, Muhammad Ali was
the heavyweight Champion of the World. The very next day,
he was not, when the New York State Athletic Commission
suspended Ali's boxing license in response to the champ's quote
refusal to submit to induction in the Armed Forces of
the United States and quote. Ali had yet to be
(31:20):
tried or convicted in a court of law. It was
just the Boxing Commission's unilateral decision based on vibes. One
month later, Muhammad Azli's trial began in the U S
District Court of the Southern District of Texas. His case
was heard before a judge and an all white jury,
which by law, was considered to be a jury of
(31:42):
his peers. No surprise, Ali was tried convicted and found
guilty of quote the federal felony of refusing to submit
to induction into the armed forces, and was sentenced to
a term of five years imprisonment For the next three years,
Ali fought to stay out of federal prison. While many
(32:02):
at the time doubted his convictions, his biographer Jonathan Iig,
found Ali's commitment to his principles to be as real
as any true radicals. He has a unique perspective on this,
since Ig is also the author of a Politrer Prize
winning biography on doctor Martin Luther King Junior. That book
is entitled King a Life.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Ali is clearly willing to sacrifice when he refuses to
fight in Vietnamen, and when he's banned from boxing and
his license has taken away and his passport's taken away,
and remember thought it was forever.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Ali had every reason to believe he would never again
set foot inside a professional boxing ring. But not only
that he might also lose his freedom. Ali wasn't just talking,
he was walking.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
And he thought he might go to jail, and he
was prepared to make that sacrifice. It's interesting to think
about a boxer positioning himself as a non violent actor
as an anti war protester, and he's engaged in the
business of violence, but he sees that there's a different
kind of violence in the world and that it pitsman
against man, nation against nation, black against white, and that's
(33:14):
what he's opposed to. It has nothing to do with boxing,
which happens to be his career. I think he's trying
to make the larger point that you know, we're all
God's children, the same argument that King was making.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And thus, like King, Ali would face imprisonment for his convictions.
For three plus years, Muhammad Ali was legally not allowed
to box. He existed in a state of exile. That
also meant he had no income, so Ali had to
dramatically reinvent his life.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
He had a difficult time making money. He went on
the lecture circuit. He appeared at various campuses, and I
heard him at UCLA in nineteen sixty six sixty seven,
and that gained him real stature, and it's something that
carried on through what happened in Zaire and his role
(34:08):
in that fight.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Ali kept fighting from the lectern all across the country,
and he fought to be heard as he debated the press.
Both the sporting press, as well as the larger news
press at home and abroad. It's noteworthy that not long
after Ali came out forcefully against the Vietnam War, MLK
did two on April fourth, nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 11 (34:33):
Over the past two years, as I have moved to
break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak
from the burnings of my own heart, as I have
called for radical departures from the destruction in Vietnam, many
(34:53):
persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path.
At the heart of their concerns, this query has often
loomed large and loud. Why are you speaking about the war,
doctor King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?
Peace and civil rights don't mix? They say? Aren't you
(35:16):
hurting the cause of your people? They ask? And when
I hear them, though I often understand the source of
their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened. For such questions
mean the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment,
or my calling. Indeed, their question suggests that they do
(35:40):
not know the world in which they live.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
In conclusion, Doctor King called for a cease fire. King
also said the Vietnamese people should lead the peace process,
and that a timeline for America's withdrawal should be planned
and announced. Sadly, America would not leave Vietnam for nearly
another half decade. It could be argued that Ali gave
(36:07):
Doctor King cover to publicly oppose the war.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
It certainly helped that Ali came out first, and it
took a hit, and King could learn from that see
the kinds of opposition he would face as a result.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
After his notable anti war speech, both the Washington Post
and New York Times published editorials characterizing King as a
dilettante in the case of world peace, a leader who
had quote diminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country,
and to his people. In other words, stay in your lane, Negro.
But doctor King was no longer willing to stay silent
(36:47):
on Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Both of them, I think linked freedom at home with
freedom abroad, and the notion that you know, you got
brown people killing brown people, and the colonial situation around
the world was linked to the American domestic situation, and
that I think helped radicalize King to a degree.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
If indeed Muhammad Ali helped to radicalize Martin Luther King Junior,
that's what it means to shake up the world. But
as Jonathan I cautions, we can't give Ali all the credit.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Kreda gets the credit more than Ali. Kreda was pushing
him for a long time on the war, and you
can see that that King was heading in that direction,
you know, long before he met Ali.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
We should never steal any credit from Kreta. Yet, also
you can still see how Ali's brave stance was something
that doctor King admired. How could he not appreciate Ali's
expression the love in the face of violence. As far
as expressions of love go, James Brown was the voice
(37:57):
of love for black people. In nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 10 (38:00):
Hi, this is Fred Wesley, James Brown baby famous when
I played in his band that.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Same year, Trombonis. Fred Wesley walked into a recording studio
in Los Angeles for his very first recording session with
James Brown and his backing band, the JB's.
Speaker 10 (38:16):
We used to have rehearsal every day. This was my
first time in the band.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
The band leader for the JBS was Alfred p Wee Ellis.
Speaker 10 (38:26):
And we rehearsing this tune. We didn't know what the
name of it was, but it was just a track
that we were doing dad that we had no idea
that it was going to become a great tune. We
were in California in the hotel and they call came
and say they wanted the band to come to the
Vox studio in Los Angeles to do this recording. So
(38:51):
we went to the studio and we rehearsed the same
tune bad Bat It light up.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
But James somehow had the instincts that the song needed
something else to make it feel special, so he went
out on the streets of LA.
Speaker 10 (39:08):
And Jane Brown came in the studio with a bunch
of kids.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
By day.
Speaker 10 (39:13):
We kept doing the thing we were doing, and James
Brown said, say it loud, and if the kid said,
I'm black and I'm proud. So we now knew that
the tune was say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud,
and we kept doing it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That refrain possessed an inarguable eloquence. It said it all,
and it did so with this evident joy.
Speaker 10 (39:37):
It ended up being not an anthem for black people,
you know, because we were proud, but we didn't know
that we were proud of being black.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
As a young black girl, Lola Love knew how different
it felt to be called colored or negro.
Speaker 14 (39:51):
You're talking about the sixties, and prior to that, you
couldn't call a person black, Okay, it with negro. And
then you have that switch where it was say it loud,
I'm black and I'm proud, and James Brown made that
very popular because all you got to just make a
song and everybody sings it. But it was shifting where
we as black people in America were identifying with the
(40:16):
Mother Continent.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Black was more than the English language version of negro.
It was also a term that black people chose for themselves.
Much credit belongs to Kwame Braithwaite's Blackest Beautiful movement of
the fifties and sixties. Later came newer terms like Afro
American and African American. They offered something new, something else connection.
Speaker 14 (40:41):
I'm a child growing up in that area with all
the Italians, the Irish. You had people who came from
Puerto Rico. They had a home country. But American blacks
did not have a country to connect with. So therefore,
getting to the word black and identifying with that, that
was a step. And then they bought an African American
(41:04):
and so now we have a country that we're connected
to and being able to go to the continent.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
For black Americans, that changed everything. On the next episode
of Rumble, Where's Joe Frazier, Where's the White Folks Champion?
Speaker 3 (41:30):
He keeps relying on these racist tropes to try to
downgrade his opponents, to say that they're not black enough.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
He can promote the fight without calling him a gorilla.
Speaker 11 (41:40):
The Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self
abnegation and say to himself and to the world, I
am somebody.
Speaker 15 (41:53):
Rumble is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumble is written and hosted by Sarah and Burnett. The
third produced and directed by Julia Chriscau. Sound design and
scoring by Jesse Niswanger. Original music by Jordan Manley and t. J. Merritt.
Our Senior producer is Amelia Brock. Series concept by Gary Stromberg.
(42:17):
Executive producers are Jason English, Sean ty Tone, Gary Stromberg,
Virginia Prescott, L. C. Crowley, and Brandon Barr. Production manager
Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley. Additional production by Claire Keating.
Legal services provided by Canoel han Lee PC casting director
(42:39):
Julia Chriscau. Episode two cast Abraham Amka as Muhammad Ali,
Johnny Mack as Doctor Martin Luther King. Junior Casting support
services provided by Breakdown Express. Special thanks to Lewis Ehrenberg.
Check out his book Rumble in the Jungle. It's a
great resource. Also thanks to Jonathan for his book Ali
(43:02):
a Life. And finally thanks to Zarenz pops Zeke, who
grounds this material like no one else. If you like
the show, let us know, like subscribe, leave five star reviews.
It really helps. Also check out our show notes for
a full list of reference materials.
Host
Robert Greenfield
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