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They Didn't Know It
Couldn't Be Done
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In 1882, champ John L. Sullivan challenged all contenders,
"first come - first served." But there was one condition. "I
will not fight a negro," he declared. "I never have and
never will." True to his word, John L. never did.
And so the heavyweight crown, like the Presidency
of the United States, was off limits to blacks - another
betrayal of the American Dream.
Boxing's color line, however, was not the result
of one man. It was established because whites, many whites,
feared the possible result of an interracial bout.
While whites believed that their champion would
beat a black contender, they still worried that something
could go wrong - perhaps a lucky punch. And should a black
man win the title, other blacks might then become uppity and
difficult to control.
They too might demand their chance to achieve the
American Dream, to become doctors, or senators, or to move
into better neighborhoods - white neighborhoods. They might
even conclude that they were not the white man's burden
after all, but rather, his equal.
On that basis, "We Cater to White Trade Only,"
became law in heavyweight championship bouts. Even to
consider breaking it was an outrage. The white race had too
much to lose and nothing to gain.
Jack Johnson would destroy such ideas. White
man's burden! En route to the title, he was more like the
white man's nightmare.
With cat-like precision and skill, Johnson
overwhelmed opponents. By doing this, he made a mockery of
any theories about black inferiority. So much so that it
became easier for white racists to hate Jack Johnson than to
explain him, a fact made all too clear by their countless
plots to dethrone and destroy him after he won the
heavyweight crown.
And yet, this hatred did not stem simply from his
being the first black champion. What worsened matters was
Johnson's character and antics outside the ring.
Despite clearly defined social barriers, Jack
Johnson enjoyed the lifestyle of which most white men could
only dream. Proud and unyielding, he refused to bend to the
whims of others. Nor would he be told how he, as a black
man, should live within society.
Instead, he made his own rules. He lived by his
own standards. As soon as the money and prestige of success
rolled in, he also became the exception to any rule he
chose.
At a time when blacks were avoided by lowly local
politicians, Jack Johnson conversed with European royalty.
At a time when whites stereotyped black males in
a pair of overalls, Jack Johnson hired a maid just to care
for his wardrobe.
At a time when many blacks were buried beneath
poverty and debt, Jack Johnson sipped wine through a straw,
owned an integrated nightclub, drove expensive sports cars
and proudly mounted a diamond onto one of his gold studded
teeth.
At a time when black men were lynched for simply
looking at white women, Jack Johnson looked at, caroused
with, and married white women.
And at a time when racist theory taught that the
black man was not genetically a man, Jack Johnson proved
that he was not only a man - but his own man. |
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Sal Fradella
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