Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson led a life of triumph and tragedy. By breaking color barriers he became the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion. “He had…battered his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and won the greatest prize in American sports-a prize that had always been the private preserve of white combatants. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most Negroes struggled merely to survive, he reveled in his riches and his fame. Most whites (and some Negroes as well) saw him as a perpetual threat-profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace, and danger to the natural order of things” –Geoffrey C. Ward

Jack Johnson was born at a time when African Americans were seen as second-class citizens and at a time when Blacks were seen as inferior to Whites. This was especially true in the American South. That is where Jack Johnson was born.

Jack Johnson was born Arthur John Johnson on March 31, 1878 in Galveston, Texas. He went by the nickname Jack. He was the third of nine children only five of which reached adulthood. Jack Johnson’s parents were Henry and Tina (also known as Tiny) they were both slaves freed during the American Civil War

Jack Johnson’s parents made sure that all their kids went to at least five years of school, although both of them were illiterate. Jack Johnson had to go to a segregated school but he had many white friends. Jack Johnson avoided fighting. He relied on his older siblings to protect him from bullies until he was twelve. By then he was so skinny and frail a doctor warned he might have tuberculosis. No one is completely sure how he started fighting and protecting himself.

Like many children back then, Jack Johnson didn’t go to High School. Instead he went to work to support his family. At one of his jobs he met Walter Lewis who was a fan of boxing and introduced Jack to the sport. Johnson saved enough money to buy two pairs of boxing gloves. He started boxing in small prizefights and battle royals. Battle royals were when white men would get a group of African-Americans together to fight each other, sometimes blind-folded until only one man was left standing. Then Jack started to fight in regular boxing matches. At first it was hard for him to make a living boxing but eventually he started to fight regularly and made good money from each fight.

Jack Johnson was forced to stop boxing on September 8, 1900 because a hurricane destroyed Galveston. More than 6,000 people died and, like 10,000 other people, Jack Johnson and his family were left homeless. It was said to be the deadliest natural disaster in U.S history. Jack had to stop fighting because he had nowhere to live.

The heavyweight champion at the time was named Jim Jeffries. He refused to fight a black man. Jack Johnson fought Jim Jeffries’ younger and less talented brother, Jack Jeffries, in California. After Johnson beat the younger Jeffries he said to the champion, “I can lick you too.” After beating Jack Jeffries he started making a name for himself in boxing. He went on to beat “Denver” Ed Martin who held the “colored heavyweight championship." It was a separate title from the regular heavyweight title and Jack Johnson was still not satisfied. Jim Jeffries eventually retired when there weren’t any more white opponents.

After a short-lived reign as heavyweight champion by Marvin Hart, Tommy Burns, a Canadian-born boxer, became champion. Tommy Burns promised to fight all boxers regardless of race or ethnicity but he kept making excuses not to fight Jack Johnson. Tommy Burns put a price on a fight with Jack Johnson at $30,000. An Australian fight promoter named Hugh “Huge Deal” McIntosh raised the money for the fight. Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns were to fight December 26, 1908 at 11:00 o’clock in Sydney Stadium, Australia. People started lining up hours before the fight. There were at least 20,000 men in the stadium and even more were outside the ring in trees and telegraph poles trying to watch the fight. Although Jack Johnson was a much better boxer and bigger than Tommy Burns, Johnson was over six feet tall and 192 lbs. Burns was only five foot seven inches and 167 lbs, Tommy Burns was favored to win 5 to 4.

Jack Johnson entered the ring first to the sound of racial slurs and then Tommy Burns entered as the crowd cheered and clapped. Seconds after the bell rang Jack Johnson had already knocked Tommy Burns to the ground. Jack Johnson counter punched every one of Tommy Burn’s punches. Tommy Burns held on to Jack Johnson in the middle of the ring taunting him with racial slurs, but Jack Johnson kept his cool and just kept smiling and punching Tommy Burns. Early in the match Tommy Burns’s lips were bleeding and his left eye had begun to shut. In his corner Tommy Burns’s seconds fanned him with towels and sponged him down with towels but Jack Johnson just smiled and spit at reporters. Jack Johnson was clearly in control of the fight as Tommy Burns rushed repeatedly at Jack Johnson. Every time Johnson would punch Burns as he came close. Jack Johnson would tell Burns to punch him somewhere and when he did Jack Johnson would say things such as “You punch like a woman, who taught you to fight, your mother?” When Tommy Burns started to fall down Jack Johnson caught him and continued to beat him. One of Tommy Burns’s eyes was shut, the other closing, his jaw had swollen to twice its normal size and he was bleeding all over his face. In the fourteenth round police officers stopped the fight and ordered all cameras at the fight to be shut off. Jack Johnson was named heavyweight champion. The stadium fell silent; Tommy Burns went to his corner and began to cry. Jack Johnson only got $5,000 for the fight but he had finally reached his goal of being heavyweight champion.

Many people were angry about Jack Johnson’s victory. African-Americans were seen as unworthy of the heavyweight championship. So fight promoters and newspaper journalist started looking for a white boxer that could beat Jack Johnson, a "great white hope." They turned to Jim Jeffries when none of the white hopes had been able to beat Jack Johnson. They said that Jim Jeffries was still champion because he retired undefeated. Although Jim Jeffries refused at first, he eventually agreed to fight Jack Johnson. Jim Jeffries was not in fighting shape he had gained 100 pounds since retirement and he had gotten slow.

The Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries fight was called the fight of the century. It was held on July 4th 1910 in Reno Nevada. Jim Jeffries never had a chance. He couldn’t keep up with Jack Johnson and wore down quickly. The fight was to be stopped in the fifteenth round to protect Jim Jeffries from Jack Johnson.

In 1912 Jack Johnson was charged twice under the Mann Act with transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes; first with Lucille Cameron his future wife and then with Belle Schreiber one of his lovers. Like many of the women in his life both were white. The charges were filed because of this.

Jack Johnson fled the country in 1913 and went to Europe. After traveling in Europe he became broke. So he agreed to a title fight in Havana, Cuba against Jess Willard, a younger boxer. The fight was scheduled to go forty-five rounds. Jack Johnson was not used to such long matches and in the twenty sixth round he was exhausted. After Wiliard landed a few punches on him he fell to the mat and was counted out and lost his title. A picture of the fight shows that Jack Johnson might have been shading his eyes from the sun and not knocked out but it was never proven.

In 1915 Jack Johnson turned himself into the police so he could move back to the U.S he served a year in prison. After getting out of prison early for good behavior he didn’t box again. He died in a car crash in Raleigh North Carolina on June 9 1946. He was 68 years old.

Jack Johnson led a life of triumph and tragedy. He succeeded in becoming the heavyweight champion before his tragic death. He opened doors for other African-American athletes because many people started to see that African-American athletes are just as good as white athletes. He was also the role model of another great African-American boxer, Muhammad Ali.