In 1967, Ali refused to be drafted into the Army. He thus became liable for a $10,000 fine or five years in prison -- or both. His 67-page petition to a U.S. District Judge said he could not be a Black Muslim minister and a soldier at the same time. "If I was in the service I could not be teaching anything about the Holy Koran," Ali said. "I'd be going against it. I'd be a hypocrite." He claimed, "If going to war, and possible dying, would help twenty-two million blacks in this country gain freedom, justice and equality, I would join tomorrow." He also said that he would not help kill poor people in other countries when it is happening to his own people in America. The World Boxing Association stripped him of his world heavyweight title and he was not permitted to fight again. Ali made a living during that time by lecturing on college campuses and at peace rallies. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1970.

During the 1960s and 1970s he was arguably the best-known individual in the entire world due not only to his controversial career but also to his travels and deliberate reaching out to the Third World