Sketch by Muhammad Ali of his 1967 trial

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A pencil and ink sketch by Muhammad Ali of the courtroom in which he was tried and convicted for failing to report for military duty after being drafted. The scene is drawn in pencil then traced over and filled in with black ink. The judge sits at the bench in the top center of the scene, with the jury seated on the far left side and spectators along the entire bottom edge. Lawyers, defendants, and prosecutors sit at two tables in the center. A person sitting at the right table has a thought bubble coming from their head with what appears to be a burning building in the bubble. Muhammad Ali signed the drawing in the lower right above the crowd of spectators. The drawing is framed in a wooden frame painted gold that hangs with a single wire strung horizontally across the center of the reverse.

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