Nice post.
Old news, but he also refused to play some club in Vegas in the 50's unless they accepted Sammy Davis Jr. as his opening act. Sinatra was right about race relations in a quiet, unassuming way.
Schmeling took a huge "career risk" fighting Louis when he did. The Nazis dismissed American Blacks as subhuman apes. Their dominance in atheletics was, therefore, illegitimate, it was like a human competing against a horse in foot race. Schmeling, the European champion was acclaimed by the Nazis as the world's best boxer, Louis was portraited as little more than a trained ape.
Louis was a much better physical boxer than Schmeling, but Schmeling noticed certain weakness in his technique that he felt he could exploit. For Schmeling it was a matter of professional pride. The Nazis opposed the bout on the grounds that it was a lose/lose proposition. They did not want to "legitimize" Louis, nor risk the embarassment of a loss. Schmeling's gamble paid off and he was trumpeted as a an Aryan Ubermensch, an appellation he did little to discourage, nor much to encourage.
Louis learned from his defeat and beat Schmeling in rematch. Schmeling and Louis both served as enlisted men in their respective armies during the War, although Schmeling in an actual line unit. The Nazis had no further use for him as a propaganda tool. After the War they became friends and Schmeling paid Louis' medical bills in the 1950's.
I watched the film when it aired on HBO. They did, in fact, credit Reagan with waiving the Arlington requirements for Louis.
“...was the first African-American to fight for the world championship against Schmeling-—a situation brought on by the need to win a symbolic victory against Hitler and the Nazis....”
This sentence in poorly worded and factually inaccurate. His two fights against Schmeling were non-title fights. Schmeling was an ex-champion at the time. Jack Johnson had been an unpopular champion yet he was still recognized as the champion.
I saw an idiotic documentary about Louis that stated “he was not free” based upon his being denied home ownership in a New Jersey suburb he wanted to live in. Isn’t it amazing that in America a man can make millions, have mistresses of all races, travel all over the country, be cheered by all races, and still not be “free” according to political correctness.
Schmeling is still the only man who can claim to have beaten Joe Louis in his prime. Marciano and others beat an over-the-hill Louis.