Johnson, Jack 1878-1946

JOHNSON, JACK 1878-1946

Boxing champion

Son of a Former Slave

Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight champion, was born in Galveston, Texas, the son of Henry and Tina Johnson. His father, a former slave, worked as a porter and a janitor. Despite their lack of formal education, Johnson's parents encouraged their six children to pursue learning and provided a stable, religious home life for them. Johnson completed the fifth grade in elementary school before going to work in the cotton fields and assisting his father as a janitor. He later worked as a stevedore at the Galveston shipyards and as a stable boy in a carnage shop. Walter Lewis, his boss at the carriage shop, was a former prizefighter who taught Johnson how to box. He honed his skills in the "battle royals," degrading staged fights between black youths, and in private clubs before entering the professional ring in 1897.

Early Professional Career

Johnson's first major bout came against Joe Choynsky, a noted Polish Jewish heavyweight on 25 February 1901. Choynsky knocked out Johnson in the third round, and the fight resulted in a three-week jail sentence for both fighters because boxing was illegal in Texas. Despite this defeat, Johnson developed into one of the leading contenders for the world heavyweight title, but the leading white fighters, including the champion, James J. Jeffries, refused to fight him because of his race. Although Johnson participated in several interracial contests, most of his bouts were against less skilled black fighters. He supplemented his income from boxing with stints as an impromptu speaker and vaudeville performer, developing his own show, in which he sang, danced, and played the fiddle and harmonica. After defeating Denver Ed Martin for the unofficial black world heavyweight championship in 1903, he fought throughout England and Australia, developing an international reputation.

World Heavyweight Champion

In 1905 Jeffries retired from boxing and left the world heavyweight championship vacant without any serious contenders for the title. Marvin Hart gained the title but lost it to Canadian Tommy Burns in 1906. Johnson became the leading contender for the heavyweight title and met Burns on 26 December 1908 for the championship in Sydney, Australia. Burns, who believed black boxers were inherently cowards, was no match for the powerful Johnson. The 6-foot, 200-pound Johnson taunted and toyed with the 5′ 7″, 175-pound Burns. Referees ended the bout in the fourteenth round, declaring Johnson the heavyweight champion. The fight carried a lucrative purse of $40,000, with $35,000 going to Burns and $5,000 to Johnson.

Racial Resentment

For most white Americans recognizing a black as the world heavyweight champion was intolerable since the title personified physical and athletic superiority. White resentment toward Johnson intensified as several "Great White Hopes" failed to win back the title. On 4 July 1910 Jeffries returned to the ring against Johnson, who brutally thrashed the former champion. The outcome of the fight resulted in a nationwide white backlash against blacks and a crusade to banish boxing. White indignation toward Johnson intensified following the champion's marriage to Etta Terry Duryea, a white, in 1911. After her suicide in 1912 he married Lucille Cameron, another white. His interracial marriages received condemnation from both the black and white press and led to the passage of laws banning interracial marriages in several states. Determined to punish Johnson for his social and sexual transgressions, federal authorities prosecuted him for violating the Mann Act, a federal law forbidding the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes. Despite his innocence, an all-white jury convicted the champion, who fled to France to avoid incarceration.

Johnson's Downfall

After Johnson successfully defended his title in exile in 1913, his career deteriorated to giving boxing and wrestling demonstrations throughout England and France. On 5 April 1915 Johnson met Jess Willard for the world heavyweight title in Havana, Cuba. After twenty-six rounds of brutal slugging in the blazing sun, Willard knocked out the champion. Although Johnson claimed that the fight was frxed, it seems likely that the aged and poorly conditioned Johnson lost a fair fight. The former champion remained in exile in Spain and Mexico before surrendering to federal authorities at the United States-Mexico border in 1920. After serving a yearlong sentence in Leavenworth, Johnson returned to the ring and fought a few professional fights before retiring from the sport in 1921 at age forty-three. In later life he gave boxing exhibitions, dabbled in several business ventures, and authored a fanciful autobiography. Speeding through Raleigh, North Carolina, on 10 June 1946 to attend the Joe Louis-Billy Conn heavyweight rematch, Johnson died in a crash when he lost control of his automobile.

Sources:

Al-Tony Gimore, Bad Nigger! The National Impact of Jack Johnson (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1975);

Randy Roberts, Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (New York Free Press, 1983);

Jeffrey T. Sammons, Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988).