- My name is Muhammad Ali.
I am a black Islam...
I'm a black Muslim.
I am the people's champion.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- Hello!
I'm Carl Tart, and we're
about to talk about
the first black player to
integrate Major League Baseball.
- Oh, Jackie Robinson.
- No!
Moses Fleetwood Walker.
It's 1882.
Moses Fleetwood Walker is a
student at Oberlin College,
and he's like,
"I'm studying law,
I'm reading all these books.
This is wrong, this is good,
this is bad, this is hell yeah,
this is hell no, but
something's tearing at my heart.
I gotta play baseball.
I'm leaving college to do this,
so it better be a good idea."
So, he dips.
He joins the minor league
team, Toledo Blue Stockings.
So, Fleet is playing
catcher, but at this point,
catchers weren't
playing with mitts.
He's playing with his bare hand.
That shit is some extra shit.
He's killin' it, though.
So, it's May 1st, 1884,
and it's opening day.
The Toledo Blue
Stockings get invited
to the newly-formed
American League.
They'e like, "Congratulations,
white dudes and Moses.
Welcome to Major
League Baseball."
Moses is like, "I'm about
to be the first black dude
to ever play in Major
League Baseball.
This is what I wanted to do.
This is why I left oss...
Oss...
Law school and nobody
can tell me different.
I'm about to go out here
and swing these bats,
catch these balls,
hit these balls,
swing these bats."
This is 1884.
Think about this shit.
This is 17 years
removed from slavery.
Like, 17 years.
Slavery can't drink yet.
Slavery can't fight
in the war yet.
If you text slavery a
picture of your knee,
you goin' to jail.
(laughing)
Let's go, let's move on.
So, he's playin',
but he's experiencing
all kind of racism on the road.
He's walking up to
hotels and they're like,
"You can't sleep here.
Your team can sleep here,
but you can't sleep here."
And he's like, "What?
How can I not sleep here?"
Like, he's sleeping
on park benches
as a Major League
Baseball player.
Fans were terrible, and
they're like, "Hold up!
We didn't come to see no
black people on this field.
We came to see our
thoroughbred whites."
And then they get to
Richmond, Virginia,
and the manager of the Toledo
Blue Stockings gets a letter,
and so he runs to Fleet's room,
which Fleet's room is the
park bench across the street,
and he gets over there
and he kicks the bench
a couple times, saying,
"Fleet, wake up, Fleet."
Huh, huh, what?
He goes, "Man, you can't
play the game no more.
I just got a letter.
75 dudes are gonna be outside
waiting to beat yo ass.
You gotta not play tomorrow."
Moses was like, "I
ain't taking no risks.
If it is flake, I
ain't fake, flate.
If it is Frosted Flakes.
(laughing)
Oh my god!
- Now I'm drunk and this was
supposed to be your show.
- Yeah!
(laughing)
So, he doesn't play that game.
He just sits out.
So, then they go to play against
the Chicago White Stockings.
Their manager, his
name is Cap Anson,
and Cap Anson is like,
"Y'all jerseys is clean,
and his jersey's clean
but his face is black.
I'm not playin' with him."
And so, manager from
Blue Stockings, Toledo,
goes over to Cap and is like,
"Yo, Cap, we have to play.
Either you goin' take
this L, or we gonna play.
And Cap was like.
(growling)
"I don't wanna lose!
All right, fine.
I'll play this black
dude this time,
but I'll be back."
And so, manager of
the Blue Stockings
goes back over to
Fleet, and he's like,
"Fleet, I know you're resting
today, but you gotta play."
He's like, "What?
Look at my hands.
My hands is the size
of a donut factory."
And he's like, "You need
to play, because they said
they weren't gonna play
you because you're black."
He's like, "What?
Hold up.
(chuckling) Well, I'm
about to play today.
They must've thought wrong
because I'm about to
be on that field today.
My name is Fleet and I'm
about to be on my feet
and bending my knees
because I'm a catcher."
(laughing)
So,
oh shit.
We got it, we good.
And to make things worse,
he's got a pitcher
named Tony Mullane.
He's like, "I'm not even
pitching real to this dude.
I'm pitching what
I want to pitch."
Fleet calls slider,
he throws a curve.
Fleet calls curve, he
throws a knuckle slide,
but Fleet was so good that
he had the media on his nuts.
"The Toledo Blade" was like,
"Fleet is the most
valuable player
at catcher, at bat,
than any other player."
This is crazy that they're
saying this about a black dude
who's playing in
Major League Baseball.
"We shouldn't have no
black people on this team.
I don't want to play with them."
- Mullane has the chance
there to be the white savior
from every movie about racism.
- Yeah, the white savior,
but this ain't a movie.
- This is real life.
(laughing)
So, it's
1987.
No, it's not.
It's 1887,
and, once again,
he gets to Chicago
and his old friend there
is waiting to greet him.
And Cap was like, "Well, now
I got a whole group of people
who don't (bleep) with you."
And they kick him
out of the game.
Major League Baseball said,
"Black people ain't
gonna play in this shit
for a long-ass time."
So, after that, he's like,
"This racism shit is too hard.
I'm going back to studying
and inventing shit."
So, basically, when
Fleet left the game,
that ban lasted
for 63 years
until Jackie Robinson
gets put in the pros.
- What would you say the
moral of this story is?
- If you think got a hero,
research that hero,
and know who came
before that hero
and paved the way for that hero.
- That was all great.
Can we just do it one more
time with your eyes open?
(both laughing)
- Hello, today we're
gonna talk about
Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling.
Big fights.
America versus the Nazis.
Let's do it.
Joe Louis was a
boxer from Alabama.
He's upwardly-coming,
and he had a rockin' bod,
and he's fighting this
dude, Max Schmeling.
Max Schmeling, he
lived in Germany.
He was a German during
the time of the Nazis.
Schmeling had won the
Heavyweight Championship in 1930
cause Jack Sharkey
hit him in the nuts
and got disqualified.
So, he basically won
the Heavyweight
Championship of the world
by getting hit in the nuts.
Joe Louis' manager was like,
"We're gonna take this
ex-champion, Schmeling,
throw him in front of Louis,
Louis will pummel him."
Joe Louis was like,
"I ain't training for
this schmuck, you know?"
Instead of training,
he was playing golf,
and he had all these women
coming around and stuff.
So he's (bleep) and
playing golf and stuff
instead of training
for his fight.
Mmm.
So, the first fight
was at Yankee Stadium.
There's tens of thousands
of people there,
and everyone just assumes
Joe Louis is gonna kick
Max Schmeling's butt.
Like, Hitler didn't even want
it advertised in Germany.
Hitler was like, "This
guy's gonna lose.
We don't want anyone to
know about the fight."
It was like, Joe
was doin' all right,
and then Max Schmeling
just starts comin' at him.
He was like, boom, boom, boom.
And then (bleep)
Schmeling knocks him down
for the first time
in his whole career.
Joe Louis was like, oh, (bleep).
I shouldn't have
been (bleep) golfing.
And he
loses.
So, Louis feels like,
"I'm not the real
champ til I beat
Max Schmeling, you know,
cause he beat me before,
so I'm gonna...
Now, I want to beat him."
And so, they basically
ended up deciding
they were gonna fight again,
and he was at the White House,
and Roosevelt said, "We need
these arms to beat the Nazis.
Are you gonna win or whatever?"
And he's like, "Yeah, I gotta...
I can't do what I did before.
I can't (bleep) up and lose.
I gotta get my (bleep) in shape.
No women, no golf.
Joe Louis trains hard this time.
He doesn't play golf.
He doesn't (bleep)
chicks, he just trains,
and the second fight
was at Yankee Stadium,
and Hitler was
suddenly Mr. Cool.
Like, "All right,
we're gonna win.
Let's do this, tell everybody.
Let's party.
Let's watch the fight.
Everybody, you can
be out til 3:00 A.M.
All the bars have to have
booze, so you can celebrate.
And also, we will use the
prize money to build tanks."
Cause he thought
he was gonna win.
Joe Louis was prepared,
and he's just like,
"(bleep) one, two, one, two."
And Hitler's like,
"Uh-oh, spaghettio.
Don't let anybody hear this.
Pull the plug."
They pulled it
from German radio,
cause they knew what
was gonna happen.
Like, "Never mind,
don't worry about it.
Go do your thing.
No Jews.
Thank you, bye."
- [Man] I don't like this idea.
- Just fight nicely.
Delicate.
One, delicate.
- Thank you.
- Joe Louis is
pummeling Schmeling.
Left,
right.
- All right.
(friendly scuffling)
Okay, okay, all right.
All right, you win.
Oh, no!
No!
You got me good.
(both laughing)
The greatest fight of all time.
- And the ref said, "It's over
and Joe Louis won."
"America won."
People in America were like,
"Even me, an ass
(bleep) racist American,
can realize we're
beating the Nazis."
"That's (bleep) amazing!
I love that guy."
Hey.
- [Man] You won.
- I know.
I'm trying to get up.
Hold on, thank you.
(painful grunting)
- Hi, I am Ashley Barnhill,
and today, we're gonna
discuss the Cleveland Summit.
- [Man] Cheers.
- So, in 1964,
at the age of 22,
Cassius Clay, he is
fighting Sonny Liston.
Clay is a seven-to-one underdog.
He's not gonna win.
He goes, "You're an ugly bear.
You smell like a bear.
You're an ugly bear.
You smell like a ugly bear.
When I'm done with
you, when I beat you,
I'm gonna donate
you to the zoo."
Bam, bam, bam.
He wins.
Yeah, he becomes the World
Heavyweight Champion.
Right after he wins the
championship, he announced,
"My name is Muhammad Ali.
I'm a black Islam...
I'm a Black Muslim.
I am the people's champion.
So, the war was going on.
Muhammad Ali
was drafted.
He was like, "You know,
my religion doesn't...
I'm not allowed
to fight in wars.
This doesn't seem right."
- "Yeah.
(gaggin)
"You all right?"
- "Yeah, I'm okay."
Should I start over
from the beginning?
- [Man] Yeah, can
you start again?
(laughing)
- We're gonna be talking
about the Cleveland Summit.
(both laughing)
- So,
Muhammad Ali is drafted
and and he says,
"Now, I'm a
conscientious objector.
My religion doesn't
let me fight in a war."
And then he also added, "I
have no quorum with Viet Cong.
Like, no Viet Cong has ever
called me the N-world... N-word.
No Viet Cong has ever
sicced dogs on me."
The draft board said was...
The draft board says,
"Too bad.
Sorry, we don't accept that.
You have to go to the
induction ceremony."
(cracking)
- [Man] Geeze!
How the (bleep) did you do that?
That was, like, four cracks.
(laughing)
- So he goes to the induduction,
and the officer's like,
"We're gonna say your name,
and then you have
to step forward.
Okay.
Cassius Clay."
"My name is Muhammad Ali."
He doesn't step forward.
"Cassius Clay."
And he doesn't step forward.
And the officer is like,
"Do you understand
what you are doing?
Basically, if you
don't step forward,
you're committing a felony.
You can serve five
years in prison."
"Thank you, I know
what I'm doing."
"Cassius Clay."
He doesn't step forward.
That day, he's
stripped of his medals,
his boxing title...
his boxing license,
and his title.
Okay, people in
America were like,
"Ugh, this is bull (bleep).
This guy's just
trying to getting...
This guy's just trying to
get out of going to the war.
Muhammad Ali's manager calls
football legend, Jim Brown,
and he's like, "Can
you talk to him?
Can you convince him
to go to the army?
And can you not tell
him I told you this?
Or anyone I told you this.
Can you keep your mouth shut?
Can you keep your
(bleep) mouth shut?
Don't (bleep) tell anyone
I ever told you this.
Bye!"
Jim Brown is very shocked.
"This is shocking.
This is a shocker."
Jim Brown calls John
Wooten and he goes,
"Can you gather ten
of the most prominent,
top black athletes
and meet me in Cleveland?"
"Yeah, on it."
Everyone's just like,
"Yeah, see you there, got it.
Be there."
"We're talking to Ali?
He's my hero, okay."
So, basically, they're all like,
"We have all served, you
know, we've been part of ROTC.
We've been lieutenants
of this and that.
We've been in
this and that
military-affiliated...
We're served, we've served.
What's going on, you know?"
He talked for two hours straight
and just kind of talked about
his religious
convictions and beliefs.
I stand by my religion.
Black Muslim religion.
The Nation of Islam,
which is basically,
I will not contribute
to any war.
- That's a good point.
- That is a good point.
They face the media.
"Hi, media.
Yeah, we thought this
guy was full of (bleep),
and this guy, have you met Ali?
This guy,
we support Ali.
We believe in him, and he's
sincere and we believe in...
we validate his
religious conviction."
Ali was on trial.
It was presented in front
of an all-white jury,
And within 21 minutes,
they found him guilty, and
he's sentenced to five years.
So, he appealed and he appealed,
and basically, he gets
to the Supreme Court.
So, the Supreme
Court is planning
on ruling five-to-three
against Ali,
but then Justice John
Harlan reads a book
based on Black Muslim
religious doctrine,
and he goes to all the
other justices and is like,
"We screwed up.
This is me convincing you.
I am convincing
you we screwed up,
you screwed up, I screwed up.
We have to change our opinion."
"Okay, you're right."
So, they anonysmally
vote.
Anonys...
Anonysmally?
I have a hard word sober.
- [Man] Anonymous?
- Anonysmally.
No, that's not the word.
They anonysmally...
(both laughing)
Anonysmally.
So, basically, they
vote for Ali to go free.
He wanted to be the greatest,
and eventually he would
become the greatest.
"This is what I stand for.
I don't care if you
don't believe in it.
I'm gonna die for it."
Ali fought for
his religion.
He fought for his race.
He fought for civil rights.
He fought for...
I mean, kind of everything
that was going on at the time.
He changed the world.
