The first black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson lived in grand style and became one of the best-known figures of the early twentieth century. Boxing promoters, outraged that a black man should hold the title, sent out a cry for a "Great White Hope" to defeat him. In addition, in a time of extreme prejudice against interracial unions, Johnson married three white women in his lifetime. He was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for "immoral purposes." Sentenced to prison, he fled to Canada and was an exile for years.
Jack Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1878 and had his first series of fights as a teenager, earning his life-long nickname of "Lil' Arthur." At age 17, he traveled to Chicago, New York, and to Denver, Colorado, picking up fights whenever he could. In 1898, Johnson had married a black woman, Mary Austin. When the marriage broke up, he was so depressed that he vowed to marry only a white woman if he remarried.
By the end of 1906, Johnson had lost only two of his 56 official fights. But no one would give a black man a crack at the heavyweight title, held by Tommy Burns, so Johnson went on a two-year drive to get it himself. Fighting in England and Australia, he began to generate notice, and the press began calling for Burns to fight him. The match was set for December 26, 1908, in Sydney, Australia. Despite the fact that Burns's own manager refereed the fight, it was stopped by police in the fourteenth round. Johnson had won.
Not only was Johnson the first black heavyweight champion, but he lived the grand life, spending lavishly, and generally irritating a large percentage of the white population. But nothing irritated his detractors more than his marriage in 1909 to Etta Duryea, a white woman. A Georgia congressman was so infuriated that he tried to get a constitutional amendment passed that would ban racial intermarriage. It failed.
Boxing promoters and the public began a cry for a "Great White Hope," any white boxer who could take the crown from Johnson. Finally, retired heavyweight champ Jim Jeffries was coaxed out of retirement, urged to do so by novelist Jack London, who wrote in an Ebony magazine article, "The white man must be rescued!" The fight, held in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910, under the hot sun, lasted 15 rounds. The Great White Hope was knocked out.
Now the white population was really angry. But Johnson had more personal problems. His wife committed suicide in 1912. Some months later Johnson was charged with violating the Mann Act. The woman in question was an old friend of Johnson's, and he declared that the arrest was a frame up. Nonetheless, he was found guilty in 1913 and sentenced to a year in prison. In the meantime, he had married his white secretary, Lucille Cameron. He and his wife escaped to Canada and then Europe, where Johnson lived in exile for eight years. He was never out of the spotlight, however, still spending lavishly and courting the media's attention.
Johnson defended his crown three times in Paris before agreeing to fight Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba, on April 5, 1915. Willard won and took the crown, but Johnson always claimed he had thrown the fight. Some boxing historians agree, saying Johnson mistakenly believed his prison sentence would be suspended if a white man won. When it was not, Johnson spent five more years in exile before surrendering. He served eight months in Leavenworth prison in Kansas, where he fought in several bouts. When he was released, he was met with a marching band.
After prison, now divorced from his third wife, Johnson appeared in vaudeville and carnival acts and, in 1925, married Irene Pineau. The following year, at the age of 48, he won a unanimous decision over a 24-year-old boxer. He also published two books about his life and career. Johnson died in a car accident near Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 10, 1946. Many call him"one of the five outstanding heavy weight boxers of all time."
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