[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Rodsrsr

Saying that racism was long gone in 1967 is not only factually incorrect, its flat out crazy. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 68. No sane Black person would ever make such a statement. The United States was extremely segregated and incredibly racist during that time. This was partly why Ali did not want to serve in the war. He felt he would be killing innocent Vietnamese people only to return home to see himself and others of his ethnicity being treated as second class citizens. Last in line in the states but the front of the line in the battlefield, was an old saying you probably never heard....

I did not state that racism was long gone in 1967. I disagreed that Clay would have had to drink from a separate water fountain in 1967. People will always be racist, even today (folks of all races...just like then). Great athletes of color were treated very well in the US and around the world then...much as now. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in '68 and John Lennon in 1980. That didn't effect water fountains either.

He just spun the story that he thought put him in the best light.

Blacks served and died at about the same rate as their percentage of the population. Over 80% who served and died were Caucasian. Only about 30% of those who died were draftees. Many folks volunteered.