In this lesson, elementary school students will debate whether or not prominent athletes should promote political and social issues. The debate will be informed by the activism of Muhammad Ali, who resisted the drafted during the Vietnam War, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who protested American racism at the 1968 Olympics.

In 1967, Cassius Clay, who would later be known as Muhammad Ali, refused to be drafted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War. He claimed that he...