Currently on display at Rockefeller Center in New York is a historic piece of card measuring 89 x 58 mm: the draft card Muhammad Ali refused to sign when he was called up by the US Army in 1967. His comment from the previous year, when he learned that he was now eligible for draft, after being reclassified – ‘I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong’ – might be the most famous expression of conscious objection ever made (and made him a prime target for the draft). The boxing authorities stripped him of his titles immediately and he was convicted of draft evasion, a verdict that was finally overturned in 1971 – after he had lost what could have been the best years of his career.
The card issued by the Louisville draft board is now being auctioned by Christie’s next month. Which raises the question of where it should belong. In 1976, the year of the bicentenary of the founding of the United States, the Smithsonian bought Ali’s boxing robe and gloves for an exhibition called ‘A Nation of Nations’. The National Museum of African American History and Culture owns some of the young Cassius Clay’s training gloves and several portraits of Ali can be found at the National Portrait Gallery. However, the Smithsonian is now undergoing ‘a comprehensive review’ and the museums that would make the best home for the card are under the greatest scrutiny.
Until now, the card has been in the boxer’s family and the Christie’s press release quotes one of Ali’s daughters, Rasheda Ali Walsh: ‘Being reminded of my father’s message of courage and conviction is more important now than ever, and the sale of his draft card at Christie’s is a powerful way to share that legacy.’ Your roving correspondent was, we admit, initially sceptical about the second half of the sentence but, after more careful consideration, is now having second thoughts.