Today we look into how a man that can win a gold medal for his country still wasn’t good enough to eat a cheeseburger in 1960. Segregation and racism had deep roots in Louisville. Lets find out what happened to Muhammad Ali’s gold medal?
How did it all start?
Cassius Clay which he was known at the time had an unlikely start to boxing at the age of 12. His father had just brought him a red Schwinn bicycle for Christmas. Clay had ridden the bike to the Columbia Auditorium when he returned it had gone. Furious; Clay went searching for a police officer who could help him. He heard that a local officer was at the Columbia Gym which he ran.
With tears in his eyes he said to officer Joe Martin he was going to “whup” whoever stole his bike. Martin replied “Why don’t you learn something about fighting before you go and make any hasty challenges?”
Martin helped file a police report and suggested to Cassius to train with him and learn how to fight. This was the beginning. It only took 6 weeks of training with Martin for Clay to win his first fight.
Muhammad Ali at the Olympics
Ali developed a real fear for flying. He experienced an extremely turbulent flight for his Olympic trials. It took encouragement from his trainer Joe Martin and insistence of taking a parachute for him to board. He was on his way. Ali arrived in Rome relatively unknown to America never mind the world. Ali always had a way with words and this benefitted him greatly making his presence known inside the village. His boxing was making his presence known to the world also.
Ali blitzed through all men that stood before him until meeting Australia’s Tony Madigan. This was his first real test and had to dig deep to find victory. This was it, only Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzykowski stood in his way. Once he beat him he’d be a hero. His life would be different. However it wasn’t going to be easy. Pietrzykowski was much stronger and vastly more experienced than Ali.. and he was a southpaw. Pietrzykowski beat Ali in the first two rounds. It wasn’t looking good. In the third and final round Ali found the strength and stamina to pepper Pietrzykowski with combinations battering him for the whole round. He was still standing, but barely.
It was unanimous Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay at the time) was the new gold medal holder in the light-heavyweight division!
Ali was overjoyed. He was so proud of what he achieved he said:
I didn’t take that medal off for 48 hours. I even wore it to bed. I didn’t sleep too good because I had to sleep on my back so that the medal wouldn’t cut me. But I didn’t care, I was Olympic champion.
Muhammad Ali – 1960 Rome
All that for what?
Ali returned home in the segregated city of Louisville. His father Cassius Marcellus Clay Snr (called after a famous anti-slavery leader), and his mother, Odessa Grady Clay were so proud. Their son had brought honour to his family, to his people, to his hometown, and to his country. However, segregation and racism had deep roots in Louisville.
The New York Times reported that the boxer was publicly referred to in Louisville as ‘the Olympic nigger’. Not the Olympic hero, it had to be about race.
What happened to Muhammad Ali’s gold medal
The restaurant incident, a refusal to serve him because of his colour. This is what drove Muhammad Ali to throw away his gold medal.
“I always had some mystical idea that if I could become a big black man in a southern city I could be treated differently or the power to open doors. In 1958 we couldn’t eat in the restaurants we could eat down town. One day I saw two Africans go in with their robes and they didn’t speak a word of English. I heard them say” “let them in they aint negros.”
“So I thought when I got an Olympic gold medal then I’ll go in. I got my medal, went back in, ordered two cheeseburgers and they said” “sorry we don’t serve Negros” “I said I don’t eat them either so just get my two cheeseburgers she said” “your getting smart” “She called the manager he said” “I don’t care who he is” “I got so angry I drove down to the Ohio river and thought this medal aint worth a damn. threw it into the Ohio river.”
Muhammad Ali – interview with ABC in 1967.
Muhammad Ali hero for human rights?
Muhammad Ali was a hero in boxing and a hero for humanity. A devote Muslim. He devoted his personal life to equality and love for one and other. Ali befriended Malcom X in around 1964 and changed his “slave name” from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali.
Ali rejected the war with Vietnam.
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end”
“If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
Muhammad Ali
He also pointed out that Black men were disproportionally drafted to Vietnam, and put on the front line. Similar to the restaurant story those who returned after fighting heroically still faced racism in their own country.
He worked with Martin Luther King Jr to support black rights
Although Martin Luther King Jr. had denounced the Nation of Islam (which Ali was a part of), he and Ali joined together at a rally in Louisville, KY. “In your struggle for freedom, justice and equality, I am with you,” Ali told King.
Ali helped negotiate the release of 15 American hostages from Iraq
In 1990, Ali helped negotiate the release of 15 American hostages from Iraq. Following talks with Saddam Hussein he said “I’m not going to let Muhammad Ali return to the US, without having a number of the American citizens accompanying him.” Ali got all 15.
Muhammad Ali did so much not just for boxing but the world and he will be remembered for that.
Please check out our other content.