Jack Johnson (boxer)

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Jack Johnson
Heavyweight boxing world champion boxer
Jack Johnson1.jpg
Data
Birth Name John Arthur Johnson
Weight class Heavyweight
nationality US-american
birthday March 31, 1878
place of birth Galveston
Date of death June 10, 1946
Place of death at Franklinton
style Left delivery
size 1.87 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles 127
Victories 92
Knockout victories 53
Defeats 14th
draw 12
No value 9

John Arthur "Jack" Johnson (born March 31, 1878 in Galveston , Texas , † June 10, 1946 in Franklinton , North Carolina ) was an American boxer. He was the first black world heavyweight champion from 1908 to 1915 ; In 1954 he was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame as the first black man , and in 1990 into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Life

Johnson grew up in poor circumstances as one of six children of Henry and Tina "Tiny" Johnson, former slaves. His ancestors belonged to the Coromantee from Ghana . He left school after six years to work in the docks. He came into contact with boxing at the age of 16 and began his professional career in the African American boxing circles in 1897. Three years later he was briefly jailed because boxing was banned in Texas. At the beginning of the 20th century he beat the best blacks like Joe Jeannette and especially Sam Langford , but was defeated by Marvin Hart over 20 rounds in 1905 , after he had made it to black heavyweight world champion in 1903.

World Champion

After having had to wait a long time for a chance for a world title without racial attributes because all champions had refused to compete against black boxers, Johnson defeated the Canadian world champion Tommy Burns on December 26, 1908 at Rushcutters Bay near Sydney , Australia . He mocked him during the fight and delayed the end. After the 14th round the fight was called off by the police, according to the left journalist Jack Newfield, to prevent a black man from knocking a white man to the ground. He was the second black boxing world champion after the Canadian featherweight George Dixon .

Jack Johnson fighting James J. Jeffries , 1910

He survived numerous hostilities from "white America" ​​more or less well and also asserted himself against well-known challengers such as middleweight Stanley Ketchell , against whom he had to go down, and the previously undefeated ex-champion Jim Jeffries , who retired after several years tried a comeback and was knocked out. After this fight on National Day 1910 in Reno against Jeffries, who had made a comeback "to show that a white man is better than a negro," there was massive "race riots" in many parts of America, in which at least 14 people were killed .

Eventually he was charged with relationships with white women and fled the United States. The reason was the so-called Mann Act , which made it a criminal offense in the version at that time to bring women across state borders. While this was absurd as an indictment against Johnson, the US federal authorities searched intensively for incriminating material and found it in a former mistress of Johnson, who, under threat of reprisals, agreed to give false testimony.

He boxed largely in France, but had to leave the country for political reasons when the First World War broke out. In January 1914 he had also performed in Hamburg.

In order to earn money, the aging world champion defended his title a few more times, but finally lost it at the age of 37 on April 5, 1915 to the tall but clumsy Jess Willard in Havana , Cuba , through knockout in the 26th . (!) Round. Johnson later claimed the outcome had been discussed, but he revoked it.

Johnson stayed abroad until 1920, when he returned to the United States on July 20 and surrendered to the authorities. He served his sentence in Leavenworth Federal Prison, Kansas, and was released on July 9, 1921; On May 24, 2018, US President Donald Trump issued a full posthumous pardon for Johnson. Until 1932 he boxed occasionally, but he did not get a fight against Willard's conqueror Jack Dempsey , then he retired. In 1936 he campaigned for the presidential candidate. In 1938, however, he returned to the ring - at the age of 60 - but lost to knockout.

Jack Johnson's Tomb, Graceland, Chicago

Jack Johnson died on June 10, 1946 in a car accident near Raleigh , North Carolina . The cause of the accident was too high a driving speed. Now the legend goes like this:

“Prior to the accident, Johnson and his co-driver Fred Scott stopped on their drive to satisfy their hunger and stopped at a drive-thru. There they were asked to eat outside after their order, as the restaurant was "only for whites". Johnson was so angry about this that he sped off with his companion. At 70 miles an hour, he lost control of the vehicle in a curve and hit a telephone pole. His passenger Scott survived the accident. "

Johnson was buried in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago . "Boxing Pope" Nat Fleischer held until his death in 1972 to his opinion that Johnson was the best heavyweight of all time.

additional

  • Johnson opened a nightclub, Club Deluxe, in New York in 1920 and sold it to gangster Owney Madden in 1923 . He turned it into the legendary Cotton Club .
  • In 2012 a park was named after him in his hometown of Galveston. This park includes a statue of Johnson.

Movies

literature

  • Toby Smith: Crazy Fourth: How Jack Johnson Kept His Heavyweight Title and Put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the Map. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 2020, ISBN 978-0-8263-6143-1 .
  • Trevor Von Eeden: The Original Johnson . ComicMix.com , online multi-part graphic novel biography, review:
  • Randy Roberts: Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the era of white hopes , 1st Free Press paperback ed., [Reprint], ISBN 0-02-926900-8

music

  • Great White Hope , a song by the rock band Styx from the 1978 album Pieces of Eight .

See also

Web links

Commons : Jack Johnson  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ West, Sandra L. (2003). "Johnson, Jack". Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Infobase Publishing. P. 177. ISBN 0-8160-4539-9 .
  2. ^ Russell T. Wigginton: The Strange Career of the Black Athlete. African Americans and Sports. Westport / London, 2006: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-98223-8 (pages 35-40, in English).
  3. ^ "Ko dem Rassismus" , Deutschlandfunk , December 26, 2008
  4. ^ "The first black world star" , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 24, 2008, p. 30
  5. ↑ Trump grants posthumous pardon to heavyweight champion Jack Johnson www.theguardian.com, May 24, 2018
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Hettfleisch: The revenge of the white man , Frankfurter Rundschau , May 4, 2013, p. 34f
  7. ↑ http://galvestondailynews.com/story/361210/ Article in Galveston Daily News (Eng.)
  8. ↑ "Comic Book Takes unflinching look at a Boxing Champion" , New York Times , December 25th 2008
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnson, John Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American boxer
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Galveston , Texas
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1946
Place of death near Franklinton , North Carolina