The Soul Of A Butterfly (6 page)

To walk down a path

where great men have

been is an honor itself
,

for a few privileged men
.

But to blaze one’s own trail

unequaled to thee;

Is a tribute to greatness

that few men shall see
.

Anonymous

Once upon a time, your great-granddaddy told my great-granddaddy that when my granddaddy grew up, “we would be free,” and things would be better
.

But listen, your granddaddy told my granddaddy, that when my daddy was born, “Now that we’re free,” things would be better
.

Then your daddy told my daddy that when I was grown, things would “surely” be better
.

But they weren’t
.

SO I TOLD
my daddy, that by the time my kids were grown, somehow I will have made a difference, and the world will be better.

the
FREEDOM SONG

Better far from all I see,

to die fighting to be free.

What more fitting end could be?

Better surely than in some bed,

where in broken health I’m led,

lingering until I’m dead.

Better than with cries and pleas

or in the clutch of some

disease, wastin’ slowly by degrees.

Better than of heart attack

or some dose of drug I lack,

let me die by being Black.

Better far that I shall go

standing there against the foe.

Is there sweeter death to know?

Better than the bloody stain

on some highway

where I am lain,

torn by flyin’ glass and pain.

Better call on death to come

than to die another dumb,

looted victim in the slum.

Better than of prison rot,

if there’s any choice I’ve got,

Rather perish on the spot.

Better now my fight to wage,

now while my blood boils with rage,

lest it cool with ancient age.

Better valid for me to die

than to Uncle Tom and try

making peace just to live a lie.

Better if I say my sooth,

I’m gonna die demandin’ truth

while I’m still akin to youth.

Better now than later on,

Now while fear of death is gone,

Never mind another dawn.

There were many ways for people to participate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr. pursued peaceful, nonviolent methods
such
as marches, sit-ins, and political organization. Some took up arms alongside Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Black Panther Party to defend, with violence if necessary, the rights of Blacks against those who would harm them. Others, like Medgar Evers, chose to work through organizations such as the NAACP, which used legal and political methods to advance the cause of civil rights. At the time, I chose to join the Nation of Islam, which promoted Black pride and independence. When I became a member, I was fighting for equality and Black pride at the same time.

Whatever approach you chose, the goal was the same: We all wanted freedom, justice, and equality for Black people in America.

Martin Luther King Jr. made a difference.

The NAACP made a difference.

Rosa Parks made a difference.

Malcolm X made a difference.

Elijah Muhammad made a difference.

I would like to think I made a difference, too.

black pride

I woke up this morning feeling good and black
.

I got out of my black bed
,

I put on my black robe
,

I played all my best black records
,

and drank some black coffee
.

Then I put on my black shoes and

I walked out my black door
…

and Oh Lord, white snow!

IN 1976, I
went to the White House to meet with President Gerald Ford. When I arrived, I told him that I liked the place so much I might go after his job. I was only half-kidding. I didn’t want that job; it was too dangerous, but if I were president, things would be different.

During the sixties and seventies, people were always asking me if I ever thought about going into politics. After I joined the Nation of Islam, reporters were saying that I was involved in a power struggle. But it was never a power struggle; it was a freedom struggle. We weren’t trying to get the power to rule White people. We only wanted to get out from under their rule and do something for ourselves.

* * *

Throughout the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War, I thought a lot about what America meant to me, and what it ought to stand for. Then I thought about some of the things that I would do differently if I were the president of the United States.

So, I wrote some of them down. I imagined myself in the White House, sitting at my desk in the Oval Office. I knew that the president would have to be White so I imagined myself as a White man ready at last to be fair to the Black people of America.

I would give an important speech to reporters gathered on the White House lawn. I would say:

Ladies and gentlemen,

It takes a real man to admit when he is wrong and when he is guilty.

We White Americans are guilty of many crimes throughout history. The worst crime our ancestors committed was bringing over those slaves from Africa.

I’ll get to that one in a minute, but first, I’m going to stop the war in Vietnam tomorrow.

Start de-escalating, because we are leaving. I feel that it is wise for us to get out now!

South Vietnam, you must just do the best you can, because we’re through.

Now, after all the boys get back to America, I’m going to tell the people who are getting paid for not growing food that they will get life in jail if I catch anyone destroying any more food. We need that food.

I’m going to hire a bunch of people with all those billions we’ve been spending on the war. I am going to pay them three hundred dollars a week to help their fellow human beings.

Furthermore, I’m going to say, “General Motors, listen here: I want you to make 50,000 diesel trucks. I’m going to fill them with canned foods and all the other goods people have been throwing away. We’re going to take
it
all down to the Black people of Mississippi and charge them nothing for it.

I’m going to take all the money I would have spent on helicopters for Vietnam and it’s going to go to Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi to pay for houses, nice brick houses with at least three bedrooms in each one. Every person who needs it is going to have a home.

Now, fellow Americans, all of you know that Black folks and White folks have had trouble getting along. We have tried almost everything from integration to sit-ins. Even tried swim-ins, and nothing has yet happened in a peaceful manner.

Black people today are educated. They’re doctors, lawyers, mechanics; there’s nothing they can’t do.

Now, Black people, we’re just repaying you. We’re not giving you anything. We are guilty.

We owe it to you. Soon we will have a completely Black-and-White society, harmoniously living in peace. There will be no more hunger, no more unemployment. Everybody will be happy.

Now, my fellow Americans, I’m going to implement all of those plans tomorrow …

You know what happens the next day?

I get shot.

The president is dead.

SPEAKING OUT

WHEN A MAN
of great wealth and fame speaks out and tells the truth, he risks losing everything that he’s worked for, possibly even his life, but he helps millions.

On the other hand, if he stays quiet and doesn’t say anything, just because he could have made millions, he wouldn’t be helping anybody. I loved freedom and loved my people more than I loved the wealth and the fame.

I proved that when I gave it all up.

the

JOURNEY

OUR LIVES ARE
a journey during which we must find our own answers and make our own paths.

On my journey I found Islam.

If I were not a Muslim, I might not have taken all of the stands that I did.

If I were not a Muslim, I would not have changed my name or sought to spread peace, and I would not have meant as much to people all around the world.

If I were not a Muslim, I would not be the person that I am today, and the world would have never known Muhammad Ali.

my

SPIRITUAL

evolution

THE MAN WHO
views the world at fifty the same as he did when he was twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

The Nation of Islam taught that White people were devils. I don’t believe that now; in fact, I never really believed that White men were devils. But when I was young, I had seen and heard so many horrible stories about the White man that this made me stop and listen.

The press called us Black Muslims and referred to us as a hate sect. But that wasn’t true. We never preached hate and “Black Muslims” was a name given to us by the media. This made many people very confused about what the Nation of Islam stood for. We declared ourselves to be righteous Muslims. We refused to take part in any wars, in any way, fashion or form, which took the lives of other human beings. We would not allow any government to force us to kill our brothers for political reasons.

When Elijah Muhammad said that White people were devils, he was mainly talking about some of the history of America. White people slaughtered the Indians, enslaved Black people and robbed them of their cultures so they had no real identity.

Elijah Muhammad was not teaching hate when he told us about all of the evil things the White man has done any more than Whites are teaching hate when they tell you what Hitler did to the Jews. That’s not hate; that’s history.

We knew that not all White people were bad and that there were Black people who did wrong, too. Some White people wanted to help us and in their heart meant us no harm, but how were we to know who they were?

The way Elijah Muhammad put it was like this: what if there were one thousand rattlesnakes outside your door, and maybe one hundred of them wouldn’t bite you, didn’t mean you any harm. But they all looked alike, so you couldn’t tell the mean ones from the nice ones. What should you do? Should you open the door and hope that the hundred snakes that wouldn’t harm you will come together and form a shield, protecting you from the other nine hundred snakes that want to harm you? Or should you close the door and stay safe?

Through it all, I had people of different faiths and nationalities all around me. My trainer, Angelo Dundee, was Italian. Bundini Brown, my assistant trainer, was a Black man, but he was Jewish. Gene Kilroy, my camp manager, was White. Ferdie Pacheco, my ring doctor, was Cuban. And Howard Bingham, one of my closest friends, is Black and Christian.

I loved them all and considered them my family.

I never hated anybody, not then and not now.

I was just proud of who I was, and Islam helped me feel that way.

* * *

My faith has evolved over the years, and I now follow the teachings of mainstream Sunni Islam. But, a part of me will always be grateful to Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam for opening my eyes and giving me something greater than myself to fight for.

Changing my name was one of the most important things that happened to me in my life. It freed me from the indignity done to my family by slavemasters who took away our family name and gave my ancestors the master’s name, like they weren’t human beings—only property.

I have always been a spiritual person; God doesn’t speak to me in a voice. It’s more like a feeling, a sense of what I have to do.

Whatever that is, I’m in tune with it. The first time I felt truly spiritual in my life was when I walked into the Nation of Islam’s temple in Miami, Florida. I felt like I had finally come home.