Prolific Profiles: Jack Johnson, Black victory, and its backlash

Jack Johnson (right) knocks out James Jeffries in the 15th round

By Aaron Kershaw

Jack Johnson broke barriers and jaws. Ribs and rules. Noses and norms. In Sydney, Australia, he became the first African-American heavyweight champion of the world, knocking out Canadian boxer Tommy Burns in front of 20,000 mostly white fans on December 26, 1908. Muhammad Ali, who many now consider the greatest boxer of time, once said about Johnson, "I know I'm bad, but he was crazy!" It was not just because of how well he performed in the ring, but because Johnson had the nerve to be tremendous and smear it in White faces, in one of the most dangerous eras to do so.

Jack Johnson was born on March 31, 1878, in Galveston, Texas. The same town that is known for Juneteenth, where the Union Army forcefully freed the final enslaved people of African descent on June 18, 1866, just 12 years before his birth. As a boxer, White Americans generally saw Johnson as arrogant and unruly. Smiling at the crowd during tie-ups between boxing exchanges and taunting his opponents during and after rounds, violently dispelling the notion of Black inferiority with every blow. When Johnson defeated then champion Tommy Burns for his world championship belt, police stepped into the ring, abruptly stopping the contest, robbing Johnson of the satisfaction of knocking Burns out cold and unable to get up on his own.

Jack Johnson (right) Tommy Burns (left)

The match was more significant than our current era of live broadcast, and Youtube uploads will allow you to imagine. Thomas Edison and William Dickson invented motion picture cameras in 1888, so 20 years later, by 1908, cameras were ringside, capturing the controversial sporting event. Within days, the fight film had spread throughout Australia, and not long after, screening events were held worldwide, displaying Johnson's boxing superiority and dominance as an undeniable truth. A Black man was now famously and perhaps, infamously considered the "Baddest Man on the Planet."

Boxing was centuries in the making, likely born out of other ancient forms of combat sports. It was a symbol of pride for various nationalities and races. Johnson was uncomfortably both Black and American, which was considered to be two diametrically opposing identities in this era and still is for many.

Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson, circa 1909.

Naturally, interracial fights held the highest stakes possible for symbolic dominance and racial identity. If a White man won an interracial bout, it was proof of his racial superiority, and likewise, if a Black man won, it upends the idea of White supremacy in an emphatic fashion.

For that reason, boxing entities scheduled fights between Whites and Blacks with regularity, pitting differences on racial lines against one another for promotional purposes. However, Blacks were not allowed to fight in heavyweight championship match-ups to avoid crowning a Black man with the highest honor in the sport.

This racist principle was called “drawing the colour line,” an unwritten rule to never allow a Black boxer to contend for a world title for fear that he might win.

Racist watermelon caricature of Jack Johnson.

Johnson was fully aware of the prejudice he faced in the sport before ever obtaining the world championship belt. He successfully defended the "World Colored Heavyweight" title for five consecutive years. Still, he struggled to secure bouts with high-ranking White opponents until Tommy Burns, the then heavyweight champion of the world, finally accepted the challenge. Johnson's effortless defeat of Burns resulted in bias news articles that referred to Johnson as "A Giant Black" to pacify White audiences who could not accept that a White man would or could lose to a Black man in a fair hand-to-hand bout.

This void of White dominance in boxing led to Whites searching for "The Great White Hope," as Johnson successfully defended his Heavyweight Championship belt against numerous White opponents.

Finally, James Jeffries, who had retired as an undefeated champion, decided to come out of retirement to "return the World Championship to the White Race," as newspapers claimed at the time.

News outlets marketed the bout as a contest for racial supremacy, which was as despicable then as it sounds today. The fight was scheduled for July 4, 1910, American Independence Day in Nevada, with hopes that the bout would place White supremacy back in its "rightful position" by devastating knockout.

Cartoon promoting Jeffries vs Johnson bout to be held July 4, 1910.

In major cities across the United States, crowds received instant telegram updates of the momentous bout in various theatres separated by race due to the era's racist Jim Crow segregation laws. Johnson dominated Jeffries, punching him through the ropes in the 15th round and soon finishing his opponent in front of a devastated crowd who felt Jeffries' lost both as a blow to their boxing fan-hood and national race relations. The dreams of White Americans who subscribed to racism crumbled across the country under Johnson's left hook.

Johnson stands over James Jeffries, July 10, 1910.

White mob violence against African-Americans broke throughout American cities as a symbolic attempt to put Blacks back in their place. These racist acts of terrorism took the lives of at least 19 people and injured hundreds of others on the night of July 4, 1910. Boxing government bodies and entertainment outlets demanded a complete ban of the film that displayed Johnson's victory over James Jeffries, further insulting the injustice done to the African-American lives lost in the riots.

The visual symbolism of a White man falling to a Black man was too unsavory for White audiences. After marketing, praying for, and expecting a demonstration of White dominance, their racist beliefs were denied by Jack Johnson's skill and will in victory.

Newspaper July 5, 1910, reporting on “Big Black” defeating “The Great White Hope,” James Jeffries.

Congress subsequently banned the distribution of all fight films in the United States in 1912 on the grounds that Johnson's victory over Jefferies stirred racial tensions. Johnson shook up the world with his fist. As clear as his victory resulted in racial animus, causing those who saw race as the primary means of self-identity, Black leaders scored wins for the next 100 years, garnering similar backlash.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s moral victories begged a bullet in the neck. Fred Hampton's push back against oppression saw him sedated to sleep and murdered by law enforcement. Obama's presidential victory resulted in racist backlash, electing a White supremacist sympathizing President, Donald J. Trump, to take his post. Johnson himself was ironically later prosecuted on trumped-up charges, only to be pardoned decades after his death by that same President Donald J. Trump.

The lesson I take from Jack Johnson; be bold, be exceptional, never shrink to adversity, and never take no for an answer. But if you're performing under the pressure of hate, anticipate the backlash of victory, as it is sure to come.