The preening, dancing, smiling, diamond-encrusted, booty shakin’ black stars of today owe their excesses to one man: Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world.
As the world title-holder, Johnson had to face a series of fights with “great white hopes”, often as exhibition matches. In January 1911 he married Etta Duryea. But in September, Etta committed suicide, leaving Johnson despondent. Johnson, undefeatable in the ring, came under increasing external pressure - in June 1912 he was indicted for smuggling a diamond necklace and in October he was arrested under a section of the Mann Act, initially enacted to combat prostitution but never before used in prosecution, for transporting his fiancee, a white woman named Lucille Cameron, across state lines. Despite the looming trial, Johnson married Cameron in December 1912. He went to trial in Chicago in 1913 and on May 14 he was convicted and sentenced to a year and a day plus a fine of $1000.
In mid-June he fled the United States while free pending appeal. He continued fighting, mainly in exhibition bouts, but on April 5, 1915 the 37 year old lost his title to Jess Willard in Havana. With a crowd of 25,000 for the scheduled 45 round fight Johnson was K.O.’d in the 26th round. Later, Johnson encouraged African-Americans to move to Mexico, where he had fought a number of bouts. On July 20, 1920, Johnson surrendered, with pride, to Federal agents. He was sent to Leavenworth to serve his sentence. He was later released, but boxed unsuccessfully. Partly forgiven for his previous “crimes,” Johnson became America’s first black sports star. In fact, he became the toast of the town in some liberal circls. He died in an automobile accident on June 10, 1946, in Raleigh, N.C.
Johnson was larger than life and even in the Jim Crow South not afraid to show it. He followed a philosophy that would not allow him to bow to or take a secondary role whites, no matter what the costs. And he lived a fast-paced, vivacious life full of style, study and travel. As a result, many whites at the time saw beating Jack Johnson as righting a social wrong. His contemporary W.E.B. Dubois pointed out that Johnson’s “unforgivable blackness” was the source of his troubles.
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