Jack Johnson

1878–1946 · 68 years Tier II

Galveston dockhand who took the title nobody would let him fight for

Portrait of Jack Johnson — File:Jack Johnson LCCN2001704425.jpg: George Grantham Bain Collection — 1915 — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

His parents had both been enslaved. Henry Johnson was disabled working as a civilian teamster with the 38th Colored Infantry and swept floors afterward, Tina took in washing, and their third child grew up on the Galveston waterfront in an integrated gang of boys off 11th Street. There was a segregated high school he could have entered. He worked instead — sweeping a barbershop, portering in a gambling parlor, helping a baker — and in Dallas a carriage painter named Walter Lewis put gloves on him. In the summer of 1895 he fought a fellow dockworker on the beach for a dollar and a half. Later that summer a professional offered 25 dollars to anyone who lasted four rounds. He did, and called it the hardest money of his life.

He turned professional on November 1, 1898 and then spent a decade being refused. White champions drew the color line, so he took the world colored heavyweight title in Los Angeles in February 1903 and defended it while following Tommy Burns around the world, taunting him in print until promoters guaranteed Burns 30,000 dollars. At Sydney Stadium on December 26, 1908 the police climbed into the ring in the 14th round, and Johnson had the championship. Jim Jeffries came out of retirement to take it back, saying flatly that he meant to prove a white man was the better, and lost at Reno on July 4, 1910. Riots followed that night in more than 25 states and 50 cities and killed at least 20 people. Jess Willard knocked Johnson out in Havana in the 26th round on April 5, 1915.

On Christmas Day 1910, after hiring an investigator to follow her, Johnson beat Etta Duryea badly enough to put her in a hospital. They married three weeks later. She had already attempted suicide twice, and on September 11, 1912 she shot herself. Booker T. Washington said publicly that Johnson was injuring his own people. Five weeks after Duryea's funeral, federal agents arrested Johnson under the Mann Act over Lucille Cameron, who refused to testify, and then again over Belle Schreiber, who did. An all-white jury in Kenesaw Mountain Landis's courtroom convicted him in June 1913 of conduct that predated the statute. He jumped bail, fought abroad for seven years, surrendered at the Mexican border in 1920, and served his year at Leavenworth.

He fought for money into his sixties, in cellars and on undercards, and made his last ring appearance at 67 on a war bond card in November 1945. On June 10, 1946 a North Carolina diner refused to serve him. He drove off angry, hit a telegraph pole on U.S. 1 near Franklinton, and died that evening at St. Agnes in Raleigh, the nearest hospital that admitted Black patients. His grave in Chicago sat unmarked for decades and the stone still carries only the surname. Congress twice asked a president to pardon him and twice nothing happened. Donald Trump signed the pardon on May 24, 2018, 105 years after the conviction.

Lifespan

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Jack Johnson's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

World Colored Heavyweight Championship other
Won over Denver Ed Martin in Los Angeles and defended four times 1903
The Johnson-Jeffries Fight film
The fight film, added to the National Film Registry in 2005 1910
Cafe de Champion company
His interracial Chicago nightclub, opened in July 1912
Mes combats book
The first of his two memoirs, published in France during his exile 1914
Club Deluxe company
His Harlem club, sold in 1923 to Owney Madden, who renamed it the Cotton Club 1920
Wrench patent patent
Improvements to the monkey wrench — which he did not invent, despite the story 1922

Life in brief

with age at each point

1895 aged ~17 Wins his first real bout on a Galveston beach for a dollar and a half
November 1, 1898 aged 20 Professional debut in Galveston, knocking out Charley Brooks
February 25, 1901 aged 22 Knocked out by Joe Choynski, then jailed with him for 23 days Prizefighting was illegal in Texas. The sheriff let spectators watch them spar in the cell.
December 26, 1908 aged 30 Takes the world heavyweight title from Tommy Burns in Sydney Police stopped the fight in the 14th round in front of more than 20,000 people.
July 4, 1910 aged 32 Beats Jim Jeffries at Reno and the country riots Violence broke out in more than 25 states and 50 cities. At least 20 people died.
September 11, 1912 aged 34 Etta Duryea Johnson kills herself He had beaten her into a hospital on Christmas Day 1910, before they married.
June 1913 aged 35 Convicted under the Mann Act by an all-white jury The acts charged took place before the statute existed. He was sentenced to a year and a day.
April 5, 1915 aged 37 Loses the title to Jess Willard in Havana in the 26th round
September 1920 aged 42 Surrenders at the Mexican border and enters Leavenworth Released July 9, 1921.