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Jack Johnson Story
On 26 December 1908, Jack Johnson won the Heavyweight
Championship of The World, defeating Tommy Burns in fourteen rounds at the
open-air stadium at Rushcutters Bay, near Sydney, Australia. He became the
first black World Heavyweight Champion and, following the end of his reign
in 1915, the last for more than two decades. To that end, Johnson’s mark
in boxing history was made. As with all the legendary fighters of the past
hundred years though, his legacy is not set in his debut as champion, but
during the coming years and the successful defences of his title. What
followed, according to author Graeme Kent, was ‘seven years of trouble
and madness,’ as the infamous campaign to dethrone Johnson and return
the richest prize in sport to a white man got underway.
Great White Hopes: The Quest To Defeat Jack Johnson is the account of
those men, who, including the many who were groomed for a tilt at the
title but ultimately never got a shot, numbered more than thirty. It is an
account of the promoters and managers whose attempts to restore world
opinion, and reassure a white-led global political climate that the
Caucasian race was superior in every field, was fuelled by the
international press. It is the account of the leading social commentators
of the day whose starkly racist attitudes prevailed throughout the world
of sport and far beyond its realms; even President Roosevelt, an avid
boxing enthusiast, fretted over the potential repercussions of having one
of the sport’s most prestigious titles held by a black man. Kent’s
book, to its credit, is an account though, and not a statement.
There is the occasional and justified quip at the manifest prejudice of
the era, but the testimony of those who witnessed Johnson’s championship
years first hand paints a sufficiently palpable image. Kent’s accounts,
while unbiased, nevertheless communicate a constant underlying current of
racism which links almost every aspect of the attempt to overthrow Jack
Johnson.
The Hopes come along, gamely at first, with the arrival of Victor
McLaglen, who was little more than ‘an unknown substitute’; Tony Ross,
who was ‘cannon fodder’ for the champion; Al Kauffman, who gained some
respect from the label of ‘The giant fighter’ applied by Johnson
himself; and Stanley Ketchel, ‘still rated by some experts as one of the
best middleweights of all time.’ They were all defeated with ease by the
champion, mostly in unofficial newspaper verdicts which were common at the
time, since many fights which did not end in a knockout were declared
no-decision contests by prior agreement.
Then, in July 1910, James J Jeffries, former heavyweight champion, was
lured out of retirement by unprecedented monetary offerings to take part
in the original ‘Fight Of The Century’ in Reno, NV. Scheduled for 45
rounds, the fight was covered world-wide and brought throngs of people to
the doors of press offices from Fleet Street to New York in the hope that
they might catch word on the fight as it unfurled. Jeffries’s corner
were forced to stop the one-sided bout after fifteen rounds, and the riots
which followed led to the deaths of many blacks, several at the hands of
lynch mobs.
Kent conveys the fervent desire among the white public to overthrow the
champion with contemporary buzz-phrases: ‘…because he refused to
conform to the image of a ‘good nigger’, the demand for a white
heavyweight to beat him intensified.’ And so the search went on
frantically for a new hope, but after farcical tournaments staged by
crooked promoters, they came and went by the dozen without ever getting a
shot at the title: ‘Bombardier’ Billy Wells, whose scheduled clash
with Johnson was halted by racially motivated protests; Carl Morris,
former railroad fireman from Oklahoma; ‘Fireman’ Jim Flynn; Tom
Kennedy, ‘The Millionaire Boxer’, and Luther McCarty, ‘The Cowboy
From Driftwood Creek’ who, by 1913 had emerged as one of the hottest
prospects off all the White Hopes, knocking out Morris, Kauffman and Flynn
among others.
Tragically, during what was hoped to be an eliminator for the
championship, McCarty collapsed less than two minutes into the first round
as he emerged from a clinch with Arthur Pelkey and was later pronounced
dead. To add insult to mortal injury, ‘There were angry cries of
‘Fake!’ from the crowd,’ when McCarty went down without taking a
single punch. It was later ruled that the cause of death was from a
previous injury, possibly a blood clot on the brain or even a broken neck.
The White Hope campaign begins to flag as the would-be contenders, mis-managed
and under-talented, fail one after the other in their attempts to secure a
chance at wresting Johnson’s title. Their stories though, as related by
Kent, increasingly infused with references to future heavyweight
boat-rockers Jess Willard and Jack Dempsey, never cease to engage. The
accounts of fights which were staged almost a century ago are wonderfully
detailed, such is the extent of witness testimony inherited seriatim by
generation after generation.
Ultimately, inevitably, Johnson’s long and successful reign would
come to an end, but the legacy of one of the greatest heavyweight
champions would shape attitudes towards the sport for decades to come.
The Great White Hopes: The Quest To Defeat Jack Johnson is a triumph
which marshals the often refractory subject of boxing history, drawing
together the threads of fighter and opponent, managers and promoters and
their countless associates, to weave a lucid and methodical account of one
of the most prolific boxers in history, which is never less than gripping.
‘I can say that I have been the most persecuted man in the world. The
Americans, who definitely cannot accept my victory against Jeffries, the
relatively important sums of money I have won nor my lifestyle, seem to
have committed themselves to my downfall or at least my financial ruin.’
Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champion.
Petition
to pardon Jack Johnson
Great White Hopes: The Quest To Defeat Jack Johnson, by Graeme Kent
Available from Sutton Publishing
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