Cassius Marcellus Clay, was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, was taught to box by a white policeman despite being in a segregated town. It wasn’t long before he won Louisville’s Golden Glove Light Heavyweight championship in 1958. He went to Rome as part of the U.S. Olympics Boxing Team and on February 25, 1964 became the World Heavyweight champion. Shortly after winning that title he changed his name to Muhammad Ali and converted to the Muslim faith. With the war in Vietnam getting worse the Selective Service System began induction of men into the military services. Ali, citing the Koran, refused to be inducted due to his religious beliefs. He also made it known that he was not going to go and fight the “white man’s war” when