Jack Johnson was born Arthur John Johnson in Galveston, Texas. He got his start in boxing as a sparing partner. He first became heavyweight champion of the Negro boxing league. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time, refused to fight Johnson because he was black. In 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries in Las Vegas. Jeffries had come out of retirement to become the first of many so-called "great white hopes." The Texas Legislature banned films of Johnson’s victories over white fighters. For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous, and the most notorious African-American in the world. www.emperialnation.com
No comments:
Post a Comment