Jack Johnson and The Great White Hope
by From Hero or Villain: More Prisoners of Eternity.
Jack Johnson, was the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World and white people hated him for it. He battered white men around the ring, he knocked them out, he dated white women, and he demanded recognition and respect for doing so. He got neither, instead he became the focus of villification and a subject worthy of the attention of the law.
White America was delighted, as indeed were many in the black community, who resented his attraction to white women and saw his perceived adoption of white ways as a denial of his African-American roots. After many years abroad, Johnson returned to America and surrendered himself to the Federal authorities to complete his sentence. He was released from Leavenworth prison on 9 July, 1921, having served every single day of it. Johnson’s bubble had been burst and he was now short of money, so he continued to fight. But he would never fight for the world title again and his appeal at the box office diminished with every passing year. He did not have his last bout until 1937, when he was already in his sixtieth year by which time he was being regularly beaten. He was killed in a car crash in Franklinton, North Carolina, on 10 June, 1946, after angrily speeding away from a restaurant that had refused to serve him because he was black.
For much of his life Jack Johnson, was without doubt the most hated man in America. Though such animosity was in large part unmerited and centred solely around the colour of his skin and his racial background there is also little doubt, much like another negro champion some 50 years later, that he courted such bad feeling. He deliberately maintained a high profile, openly flouted convention, boasted of his physical prowess both in and out of the ring, and regularly defied authority. Once, when he was pulled over for speeding and fined $50 he handed the officer a $100 bill saying that he intended to make the return journey the same way. He was boastful, arrogant, and cocky, and he was hated for that almost as much as he was for his colour. The two combined made for a combustible mix. But could he have been who he was, achieved what he did, and survived the backlash, had he been any other way. When his third wife, Irene Pineau, was asked what she loved about her husband she replied, ” I loved him because of his courage. He faced the world unafraid. There wasn’t anyone or anything he feared.”
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