INTL101 Week 9
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AliII.pptxRace, Nationalism, and Boxing in the United States
Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali
Race, Nationalism, and Boxing in the United States
John L. Sullivan, first modern heavyweight champion (1885-1892)
Sullivan, “I don’t fight n*ggers.” (July 1889)
Sullivan refused to fight the best black fighters of his day
Jim Jeffries (champion from 1899-1905) followed suit and protected the championship from black pugilists
John L. Sullivan
Tommy Burns vs. Jack Johnson, 1908
Heavyweight champion Tommy Burns (Canadian) agreed to fight African American Johnson in 1908 in Sydney, Australia
Reasons why this fight was able to buck the tradition:
Burns was a less exciting champion and many lost interest in boxing
Sportswriters were desperate to cover the drama and excitement of a good fight and sell more newspapers, so they urged Burns to take on a black fighter
Also, many journalists were convinced about the superiority of whites physically and intellectually and wanted to see this verified in an interracial bout
Boxing promoter Hugh McIntosh also found the $30,000 Burns demanded to fight
Tommy Burns vs. Jack Johnson, 1908
Johnson knocked down Tommy Burns for the eight count in the fourteenth round, becoming the first black heavyweight champion of the world
Novelist and reporter Jack London expressed the sentiment of many in the United States: “He (Burns) is a white man, and so am I. Naturally I wanted to see the white man win.”
Thus, outside of the black community there was not joy that the title had returned to the United States; instead, identification with the boxers was based on race
Although there was not a huge negative reaction to Johnson’s victory, Jim Jeffries was called on to come out of retirement and fight Johnson
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, 1910
When Jeffries agreed to fight Johnson in 1910, he said it was “at the request of the public[.] That portion of the white race that has been looking to me to defend its athletic supremacy may feel assured.”
The Johnson vs. Jeffries fight, which took place on the 4th of July in Reno, Nevada, was a huge event that garnered much more attention in the United States than the Burns vs. Johnson fight two years earlier
As the Los Angeles Times reported, Jeffries had “re-entered the ring to rescue the championship from the negro [sic] race”
Johnson was portrayed as African, whereas Jeffries was the “great white hope”
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, 1920
For fourteen rounds, Johnson jeered, ridiculed, mocked, smiled, and laughed at his opponent before knocking him out in the fifteenth, shocking spectators and the nation
Racial disturbances broke out across the country and a relatively successful movement to ban showing the film of the fight took place (15 states, D.C., England, and South Africa forbade the exhibition of the match)
By the end of July, 1912, the transportation of prizefight films in interstate commerce for public exhibition was a federal offense.
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, 1920
Contextualizing the Johnson “Threat”
By 1900, the sports world reflected the values racial exclusion as represented in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case
By the end of July, 1912, the transportation of prizefight films in interstate commerce for public exhibition was a federal offense.
The Industrial Revolution, urbanization, etc. brings about new ideas of “masculinity” (men idealize men of former generations who were on the frontier, independent, and with their destiny in their own hands); boxing became really popular during the late 19th century for this reason
Masculine characteristics were also strongly linked to ideals of national success and civilization, exemplified by such U.S. notions as yeoman ideology and westward expansion, conquering whatever and whomever may lie in the way
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, 1920
Contextualizing the Johnson “Threat” (cont’d)
Era of eugenics, biological determinism, scientific racism, etc.
Belief that the inequality between societies and racial groups was scientifically proven
The fight also took place during the heyday of Social Darwinism (the belief that laws of natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc. apply to humans.)
Charles Darwin himself rejected that differences in race were a matter of evolution, but he did accept hierarchy between people.
Jack Johnson vs. Jim Jeffries, 1920
Contextualizing the Johnson “Threat” (cont’d)
Sociologist William Elwang articulated the ideals of Social Darwinism when he stated:
The negro [sic] race lacks those elements of strength that enable the Caucasian to hold its own, and win its way[.] Negroes cannot create civilizations. Theirs is a child-race, left behind I the struggle for existence because of original unfavorable inheritance of physical and mental conditions that foredoom to failure their competition on equal terms with other races.
Elwang’s coupling of physical and mental attributes reveals the challenge a black heavyweight champion posed to these beliefs and suggested not that blacks were equal to whites, but that they were superior to them
Jack Johnson
Johnson’s “objectionable” behavior/lifestyle included:
Being flashy with his wealth (driving fast, expensive cars and wearing flashy clothes)
Flaunting relationships with white women
In 1912 and 1913, he was indicted for violating the Mann Act for crossing a state line first with his girlfriend and then with his mistress (the law forbade interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, i.e., prostitution); In 1913 he was sentenced to one year and a fine of $1000
While out on bail, Johnson escaped to Europe
Johnson’s wedding to Lucille Cameron
Johnson eventually lost the championship to Jess Williard in Cuba in 1915
Joe Louis: The Anti-Jack Johnson
Louis began his professional career in 1934 and was heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949 (won the most heavyweight bouts than anyone in history)
Joe Louis did everything possible to sever any comparison between he and Jack Johnson, including:
Refusing to take pictures with white women
Remaining unassuming and emotionless in the ring
Avoiding bars
Staying scandal-free generally
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part I (1936)
Occurred at a time when antagonism toward Nazism in the United States was relatively low, and Schmeling was not perceived as a Nazi
When German boxer and former champion Schmeling arrived on his ship we evidently was met with the largest crowd ever to receive a visiting boxer
He was seen favorably and treated like a celebrity, despite the fact that most believed he would lose to the 22-year old Louis
Hitler was concerned that Schmeling would lose and shame ”German honor”
Some saw Schmeling as a great white hope
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part I (1936)
The black press and organizations did speak out against Nazi politics in light of the Schmeling fight
In a surprising outcome, Max Schmeling defeated Joe Louis in the 12th round
Schmeling later recalled how the crowd that had been behind Louis abandoned him once they realized that Schmeling had a legitimate chance
Schmeling remembered the crowd chanting, “Kill him!”
He wrote that there was complete jubilation in the ring once Louis was knocked out, and that he received numerous congratulatory notes in his hotel, which also filled with flowers
The post-fight analyses was often racial in ways that framed Joe Louis as a representative of U.S. black communities (i.e., Harlem)
Still, Louis became heavyweight champion in 1937 (against Jimmy Braddock)
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part II (1938)
Louis was now heavyweight champion of the world, the second black champion and the first after Jack Johnson
By 1938:
Hitler was very popular in Germany
Germany had annexed Austria, revealing the Third Reich’s expansionist objections
Newspapers across the country published daily articles such as “Jewish Terror Drive Spreads”
News of a possible Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia occurred just two days before the fight
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part II (1938)
Thus, the attitude toward the Nazi regime and Schmeling had changed significantly, and when Schmeling disembarked from the same ship he was met by a slew of loud protestors with signs such as “Boycott Nazi Schmeling!”
The Third Reich had used Schmeling’s first victory against Louis as Nazi propaganda as well, creating a connection between Schmeling and the Nazi regime in the minds of the U.S. public
U.S. black press and organizations attacked Nazism, linked anti-Semitism to anti-black racism, and perceived Louis’s victories as a strike against the ideology of white supremacy
With Schmeling as the anti-democratic villain in the fight, Joe Louis came to represent U.S. democracy
This fight marked perhaps the first time in U.S. history (on national soil) that a black man became the symbol of U.S. democracy
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part II (1938)
Joe Louis as National Representative and Symbol of U.S. Democracy
Former mayor of Atlanta Maynard Jackson recalled that Louis “was not just a hero to blacks but the first legitimate national hero who happened to be black.”
According to Louis, President Roosevelt invited him to dinner before the fight, asked to feel his muscles and said, “Joe, we’re depending on those muscles for America.”
Newspapers around the country and the world reported that the fight was a fistic rendition of fascism vs. democracy.
The Nazis complained that the U.S. press was being “unsportsmanlike” and making a “racial questions and political affair” out of the contest
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part II (1938)
Joe Louis as National Representative and Symbol of U.S. Democracy (cont’d)
In an electrified and highly-charged stadium, Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling just 124 seconds into the first round
The crowd went wild: as they interpreted it, U.S. democracy had triumphed over Nazi fascism
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, Part II (1938)
Joe Louis as National Representative and Symbol of U.S. Democracy (cont’d)
Joe Louis’s race helped here:
The fact that a black U.S. man beat a white German helped to make the contrast between the United States and Nazi Germany starker
By supporting Louis as the representative of U.S. democracy, the country could take the racial high ground over the Nazis and appear to be a stalwart of racial enlightenment
Despite the fact that the black press drew comparisons between Jim Crow and Nazi policies and ideology, the jubilation around Joe Louis’s victory allowed the nation to portray itself as a racial democracy
Muhammad Ali: Quick Facts
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky (born 1942)
Light heavyweight gold medalists in Olympics in Rome (1960)
Converted to Islam in 1964; in the 1970s he separated from the Nation of Islam to embrace multiracial Sunni Islam
Would hold the championship three different times (1964-67; 1974-78; and briefly later in 1978)
Showed signs of Parkinson’s Disease before the end of his boxing career
Passed away of septic shock after being hospitalized for a respiratory problem in 2016
“Rumble in the Jungle,” Kinshasa, Zaire, 10/1974
Muhammad Ali: In Memory
Most famous outspoken objector of Vietnam War before that was popular
An advocate for black freedom
An controversial black radical
An advocate for Islam
An advocate for the Parkinson’s community
A person who said what he thought
A person willing to suffer for his convictions
An entertaining, funny, witty, fast-speaking, and energetic personality
One of the most famous and admired sports figures of the 20th century
One of the greatest and most entertaining boxers of all time
Muhammad Ali: Quick Facts
Originator off some of the most iconic sports quotes and images of all time (See three images at end of slide show)
A determined, larger-than-life and unbreakable human spirit who believed in himself completely (critics would say he was arrogant)
An uber-masculine icon
I think his Parkinson’s and the facts that he left the Nation of Islam, suffered for what he believed in, and opposed a war that was never “won” and that has been deeply criticized in the history books, helped to change his controversial image and turn him into a benign and beloved figure (largely)
Muhammad Ali: Quick Facts
Major ways in which he has been honored:
Will Smith starred in the movie Ali, for which he earned an Oscar nomination
Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings about Ali
One Night in Miami (2020 film about the meeting between then Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown)
He lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996
George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005
