b'Remembering Football Legend, Activist, and Hero Jim BrownBlackMansStreet.today Mostsportsreport-ersatbignewspapers refusedtocallhim IJimBrownastheleadingrunningMuhammadAliand followed back for the Cleveland Browns, but what drewinsteadusedhisslave metohimwashowheorganizedotherBlackname, Cassius Clay.men to support Muhammad Ali, who refused toAnd when he was suf-be drafted to fight in Vietnam. fering from Alzheimer\'s, ItwasacourageouspositionforAliandtheadiseasethataffects Blackmentotake.IwouldreadtheTacomathe brain, some sports News Tribune and the names of Black and Whitewriterssuggestedhe men I knew who died in Vietnam. was addicted to heroin.AfterAliwontheOlympicgoldmedalattheAnd many Blacks also 1960RomeOlympics,aLouisvillerestaurant,did not like Ali because wherehelived,refusedtoservehimthetwothey considered him an hamburgers and coffee he ordered. embarrassmenttothe The waitress said to Ali, Sorry, we dont serverace.Negros.\' Ali said to her, I dont eat them either,TheBoxing just give me two cheeseburgers.\' CommissionsinNew She said, Youre getting smart and she calledYork, Illinois, and Texas the manager and he said, I dont care who he is.\' wantedtostripAliof hisheavyweighttitleJim Brown (center) with Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul -Jabbar. Brown Muhammed Ali said no Vietnamese ever calledandeventually,theycalled a summit of Black men to support Ali\'s decision not to fight in Vietnam. him Nigger.did.HiscaseworkedAlso included in the picture is Carl Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland itswaythroughthe(standing far left, second row).appeals process, and inThis was my first public support for Muhammad 1971 his title was restored.Brown, considered one ofDuring this period when his boxing career wasAli and it was the first of many steps I would take paused, opposition to the Vietnam War grew andas a civil rights activist." the greatest football playersAli\'s resistance to the war gained sympathy, heThe Cleveland Summit has been called "a sig-spokeatcollegesacrossthenation,criticizingnificant turning point for the role of the athlete to ever play the game, diedtheVietnamWarandadvocatingforAfrican- in society" and "one of the most important civil American pride and racial justice. rights acts in sports history" as well as a prede-Thursday, May 18 at his LosIn June 1967, Brown organized The Clevelandcessor of the protest movement initiated by Colin Kapernick.Angeles home. He was 87Summit,insupportofMuhammadAli.OtherBrown was considered one of the greatest foot-famousBlackathletesattended,including ball players who ever played the game. He also years old. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell. was an actor. Brown died Thursday, May 18 at WhenIwas20,JimBrowninvitedmetohis Los Angeles home. He was 87 years old.attend the Cleveland Summit, Jabbar tweeted. COLORADO SPRINGSBODY OF CHRIST NEWS JUNE 2023 follow us onfacebook 13'