The Hauser Report: From HEALING to Hate — Muhammad Ali, Fred Levin, and Florida

The Hauser Report: From HEALING to Hate — Muhammad Ali, Fred Levin, and Florida

Last month, The New York Times reported that a white nationalist and avowed antisemite named Preston Damsky was given an award designating him as the best student in a seminar taught at the University of Florida Frederic G. Levin College of Law. The honor was based in large part on a paper Damsky wrote that argued in favor of an “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution and declared that the phrase “We the People” in the Preamble to the Constitution refers exclusively to white people.

Word of Damsky’s honor brought back memories for me of a day that I spent in Florida decades ago with Muhammad Ali and Fred Levin (after whom the law school is named). Let’s put the matter in context.

Damsky’s paper, as characterized by The Times, called for an end to the protection of voting rights for nonwhites in the United States and cautioned that turning over the country to a nonwhite majority would constitute a “terrible crime.” It also advocated for shoot-to-kill orders aimed at “criminal infiltrators at the border” and warned of revolutionary violence by “The People” if these steps were not taken.

In a second paper, Damsky suggested that nonwhites currently living in the United States be given ten years to move to another country.

The seminar was taught by John L. Badalamenti (a United States District Court judge appointed by Donald Trump).

Damsky and Badalamenti don’t sound like Native-American names. One might speculate that their forebearers were immigrants to the United States (possibly from Eastern Europe and Italy).

Damsky has since been suspended by the university and placed “on leave” by the law school after posting on X that the Jewish people should be “abolished by any means necessary.” He is currently challenging this suspension in court.

Frederic G. Levin (after whom the law school is named) was an attorney who graduated from the University of Florida School of Law in 1961 and became one of the most successful personal injury trial lawyers in the country. His most significant courtroom triumph came when he successfully sued the tobacco industry on behalf of the State of Florida to recoup money expended for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses. The litigation was Dickensian in length. The tobacco industry used every legal tactic at its command to delay the proceedings. Ultimately, the case was settled for $13 billion. The court-approved legal fee was $300 million.

At that point, Levin became a philanthropist, donating tens of millions of dollars to educational and medical causes. The most notable of these donations came in 1998 when he donated $10 million to the University of Florida School of Law, the second largest cash donation ever received by a public law school up until that time. One year later, the name of the school was officially changed to the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law. Levin died of complications from COVID in 2021.

How does this relate to Muhammad Ali?

In 1997, Ali and I co-authored a short book titled “HEALING” that spoke to the need for tolerance and understanding among people of different races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds. Then Muhammad, his wife Lonnie, and I visited schools throughout the country with the help of HBO, the Boston Globe Foundation, and Turner Broadcasting. At each stop, we addressed students about the need for tolerance and understanding and gave them copies of “HEALING”.

Then I got a telephone call from Levin who, with his brother Stanley, had guided boxing great Roy Jones from age thirteen through Jones’s glory years as a champion.

Jones and the Levins were Pensacola residents.

“I like what you and Muhammad are trying to do,” Fred told me. “I’d love to put together an event for you in Pensacola.”

Fred’s idea of putting together an event wasn’t opening up a high school auditorium. He rented the entire Pensacola Civic Center at his own expense and arranged for busses to transport 7,600 students to the assembly from high schools throughout Escambia County.

There was opposition. Several Christian fundamentalists threatened legal action to halt the assembly, claiming that our appearance was a plot between a Muslim (Ali) and two Jews (Levin and me) to teach heresy to their children. To deal with this objection, the school board decided that a parental consent form would be required for students to attend the assembly. Then, inexorably, the community came together in support of our visit. Florida Governor Lawton Chiles attended the event and praised its purpose. Roy Jones also addressed the gathering.

Among the thoughts that Muhammad shared with students that day were:

*          “If you love God, you can’t separate out and love only some of His children. To be against people because they’re Muslim is wrong. To be against people because they’re Christian or Jewish is wrong. To be against people because they’re black or white or yellow or brown is wrong. Anyone who believes in One God should also believe that all people are part of one family.”

*          “My mother was a Baptist. She believed Jesus was the son of God, and I don’t believe that. But even though my mother had a religion different from me, I believe that on Judgment Day, my mother will be in heaven. There are Jewish people who lead good lives. And when they die, I believe they’re going to heaven. it doesn’t matter what religion you are, if you’re a good person you’ll receive God’s blessing.”

*          “Hating people because of their color is wrong. It doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”

*          “People are people. God created us all. And all people have to work to get along.”

*          “I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.”

I later learned that the son of one of the most vocal opponents of the “HEALING” assembly forged a parental signature on his consent form so he could attend.

Given the current political climate in Florida, I doubt that a “HEALING” assembly of this nature would be allowed today.

One might argue that Damsky deserves his award based on the construction of his legal theory, whether or not one agrees with its merits. But it’s troubling to think that a federal judge found any merit at all in the legal underpinning of Damsky’s thesis. And more to the point, some things are beyond decency.

If a student in a seminar on violent revolution was awarded a prize by a state university for writing a paper that meticulously outlined plausible ways to assassinate Donald Trump, there would be widespread outrage over the honor. And properly so.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – is available at https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329 

       In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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