![]() When Black construction workers celebrated Johnson’s victory near the town of Uvalda, Georgia, whites began shooting. Whites responded to Johnson’s triumph by using violence to keep Blacks in their place by any and all means. “As such, Johnson was transformed into a racial symbol that threatened America’s social order.” “No longer the respectful darky asking, hat in hand, for massa’s permission, Johnson was seen as the prototype of the independent black who acted as he pleased and accepted no bar to his conduct,” Randy Roberts wrote in “ Papa Jack,” his biography of Johnson. Johnson was arrested in 1912 and charged with violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” He served 10 months in federal prison.īut he was much more than one man. No white boxer could defeat Johnson in the ring, so white America worked to defeat him outside the ring. Historian Jeffrey Sammons says, “in many ways, Johnson represented the ‘bad n-–’ that whites were so willing to parade as an example of why blacks must be kept in ‘their place.’” An outpouring of violence In doing so, it kept Blacks and whites from seeing Johnson beat a white man. ![]() In 1912, Congress, citing the same motion picture, passed the Sims Act, banning the transport of fight films over state lines. In response to the violence, many cities forbade a film of the fight to be shown in theaters. You are on no higher place, deserve no new consideration, and will get none.” Nearly a century later, the newspaper apologized for that 1910 editorial. … Your place in the world is just what is was. Seeking to retain powerĪfter Johnson easily defeated Jeffries, the Los Angeles Times reinforced white supremacy, telling Blacks: “ Do not point your nose too high. The New York Times warned, “ If the black man wins, thousands and thousands of his ignorant brothers will misinterpret his victory.” The message was clear: If Jeffries won, white superiority would be proved – but if he lost, whites would still be superior.įootage of the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Chicago Defender, a Black newspaper, said Jeffries and Johnson would “settle the mooted question of supremacy.” The Daily News in Omaha, Nebraska, reported that a Jeffries victory would restore superiority to the white race.īefore the fight, there were signs whites feared a Jeffries loss – and that this loss would not be restricted to the boxing ring but would have ramifications for all of society. Jeffries announced to the world that he would “ reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race.” He became the “ Great White Hope.” ![]() Novelist Jack London, writing in the New York Herald, wrote about Johnson’s “hopeless slaughter” of Burns and, like other journalists, called on former champion James Jeffries to come out of retirement and “ wipe that smile from Johnson’s face.” Johnson won the heavyweight title by easily defeating the defending champion Tommy Burns in 1908. Du Bois considered “ unnecessarily alienating acts.” Setting up a racial battle He sped through towns in flashy cars, wore expensive clothes, spent his time with gamblers and prostitutes, and dated white women, which Black sociologist and commentator W.E.B. He was brash and arrogant and made no attempt to show any deference to whites. He dispatched one white fighter after another and taunted both the fighter and the crowd. Johnson’s boxing career challenged those myths. Journalists, too, sought to maintain social order by preserving myths about white supremacy. Hayes became president after promising three former Confederate states – South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana – that he would withdraw federal troops, who had protected the measure of racial equality Blacks were beginning to achieve.Īs federal forces left, whites disenfranchised Black voters and passed segregation laws, which were enforced by legal and illegal means, including police brutality and lynching. ![]() Bennett in Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, via Library of Congress A backdrop of racial hostilityīorn in 1878 in Galveston, Texas, Johnson grew up as the Jim Crow era in American history was getting started. Federal troops leave New Orleans in April 1877, as Reconstruction ends. ![]()
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