Jack Johnson

Born: March 31, 1878 Died: June 10, 1946 Total Bouts: 123 Won: 77 Lost: 13 Drew: 14 KOs: 48 No Decisions: 19..."Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, whose reign lasted from 1908 to 1915, was also the first African American pop culture icon. He was photographed more than any other black man of his day and, indeed, more than most white men. He was written about more as well. Black people during the early 20th century were hardly the subject of news in the white press unless they were the perpetrators of crime or had been lynched (usually for a crime, real or imaginary). Johnson was different—not only was he written about in black newspapers but he was, during his heyday, not infrequently the subject of front pages of white papers. As his career developed, he was subject of scrutiny from the white press, in part because he was accused and convicted of a crime, but also because he was champion athlete in a sport with a strong national following. Not even the most famous race leaders of the day, Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and W. E. B. Du Bois, founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and editor of that organization's magazine, The Crisis, could claim anywhere near the attention Johnson received. Not even the most famous black entertainers and artists of the day—musical stage comics George Walker and Bert Walker, or bandleader James Reese Europe, or ragtime composer Scott Joplin, or fiction writer Charles W. Chesnutt, or painter Henry O. Tanner—received Johnson's attention. In fact, it would be safe to say that while Johnson was heavyweight champion, he was covered more in the press than all other notable black men combined." - PBS...Born in Galveston on March 31, 1878, he was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a former slave and his family was poor. After leaving school in the fifth grade, Johnson worked odd jobs around South Texas. He started boxing as a sparring partner and fought in the "battles royal," matches in which young blacks entertained white spectators who threw money to the winner. Johnson turned professional in 1897 following a period with private clubs in Galveston. His family's home was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1900. A year later he was arrested and jailed because boxing was a criminal profession in Texas. He soon left Galveston for good. Johnson first became the heavyweight champion of Negro boxing. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time, refused to fight Johnson because he was black. Then, 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." Race rioting was sparked after the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Texas Legislature banned films of his victories over whites for fear of more riots. In 1913, Johnson fled because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution....In late 1914, two ambitious promoters — Jack Curley and Harry Frazee, who would one day buy the Boston Red Sox and sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees — began working to arrange a title fight between Johnson and Jess Willard. The fight was set for 45 rounds in Havana on Monday, April 5, 1915. Willard was given little chance to win, but he was younger than Johnson and, unlike Johnson, took his training seriously. After 26 rounds in 105° heat, Johnson was exhausted. A straight right from Willard took him by surprise, and he slid to the canvas. Willard was now the Heavyweight Champion of the World. It would be seven years before a black man was allowed to compete for any boxing title again and 15 more until a black challenger got a shot at the heavyweight championship.....Nat Fleischer ranked Johnson as the #1 All-Time Heavyweight; Charley Rose ranked him as the #2 All-Time Heavyweight; Herb Goldman ranked him the #4 All-Time Heavyweight; Johnson was inducted into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990