People, Locations, Episodes

Sat, 12.26.190826

The World’s First Black Heavyweight Boxing Champion is Crowned

Jack Johnson

On this date in 1908, Jack Johnson became the first Black man to win the world heavyweight boxing title.

Johnson knocked out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 14th round in a championship fight near Sydney, Australia.  Most white Americans hated Johnson, who held the heavyweight title until 1915, for his defiance of the "Jim Crow" racial segregation and oppression of early 20th-century America.

To become a Professional Athlete.

Reference:

History.com

Smithsonian Magazine.com

Boxing Album: An Illustrated History
by Peter Brooke Bell
Smithmark Publisher, 1995
ISBN 0831748109

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Poetry Corner

Barely through the second quarter-and he has already rushed through swatches of curses, blood and astro turf fourteen times-a ballet of chalkboard moves which sometimes fail. After the bodies rise,... THURMAN THOMAS by Reuben Jackson.
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