Posted on 01/20/2005 11:28:41 AM PST by EveningStar
Jack Johnson was a black man who often spent his days beating up white men and his nights making love to white women. This, in the first years of the last century.
So you can understand why he was a polarizing figure, why newspapers inveighed against him and the government conspired to bring him down.
Of course, chances are good that you've never even heard of John Arthur Johnson. As filmmaker Ken Burns pointed out to me in a telephone interview, we are a nation of great historical illiteracy. Ask most people what they know about even so towering a figure as George Washington and you're likely to hear only myths.
"If George Washington can get lost," said Burns, "then Jack Johnson can get lost."
Monday night on PBS, Burns set out to find him. The result is a two-part biography, "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," that offers a compelling exploration of a singular life.
Johnson was a fighter. He became the first black heavyweight champion in 1908 with an easy knockout of Tommy Burns.
This was at a time when the physical superiority of white men over black ones was widely regarded as self-evident truth, so Johnson's victory was an electric shock to the American psyche. And he kept winning, each victory another poke in the eye for the lie of white supremacy. Former champion Jim Jeffries - five years retired and many pounds overweight - was called upon as the "great white hope" who would put Johnson back in his place. Johnson toyed with him for 15 rounds, then decked him.
No black man with any sense dared look too pleased. As it was, angry whites rioted across the country. Eight people died.
What made matters worse is that Johnson was, as Burns puts it, "the original gangsta," living a bling-bling lifestyle 90 years before that term was coined. In an era that required black men to be circumspect, he was a brash fellow who didn't mind flaunting his wealth. He lived high, drove fast. And if he was attracted to a white woman and she to him, he saw no reason they should not be together. Indeed, he had a bad habit of marrying them.
It all came to a head in 1913, when Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which made it a federal crime to transport a woman across state lines for illegal purposes. Johnson's "illegal purpose" was to have sex with a white woman.
Not that the government bothered to hide the racism of its motive. As the prosecutor said after the verdict, "This Negro, in the eyes of many, has been persecuted. Perhaps as an individual he was. But it was his misfortune to be the foremost example of the evil in permitting the intermarriage of whites and blacks."
Burns, aided by Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy, is petitioning the president for a posthumous pardon on Johnson's behalf. Consider this column my way of adding my name to the list.
Still, I have issues with that word, "pardon," which suggests Johnson requires forgiveness for doing something wrong. His only mistake, if you want to call it that, was in believing that he was a man free like other men, to define himself as he saw fit, live his life on his own terms.
You hear echoes of his story in the stories of O.J. Simpson, Terrell Owens and in a hundred stories that have nothing to do with white women and sex and everything to do with the simple freedom to be.
"Jack Johnson decided to live his life nothing short of a free man," says Burns. "And this is a story of how this country went after him for doing what the Constitution said he had the right to do."
That's why I think we need to be straight about this. It would be good to see Johnson's name cleared. But it's America that should be asking for a pardon.
We are probably a nation of historical illiteracy, but Ken Burns is a documentarian of great historical bias.
I doubt Tyson would be as far down the list as you think. He was masterfully prepped for his early bouts. I would be he'd be more successful against some of the earlier boxers than you think.
That is, "I would BET." Sorry.
Johnson sounds like a fascinating man and a good boxer (and I love to hear the story of a good boxer, from Muhammad Ali to Jake LaMotta). Pity I haven't heard too much about him before, but I think I might just check out this documentary to rectify that little oversight. Joe Louis was another man able to pull himself up by his bootstraps and overcome the racial bigotry prominant in his day and age, and boxing as a sport is immensely stronger for it.
(O.J., on the other hand, really IS guilty as Hell. I don't know why the author of this piece feels it necessary to defend a double-murderer when the O.J. Simpson trial is not even related to the topic at hand).
And I am not objecting to some mention of what happened. It would be impossible to make a truthful biographical picture on Johnson and ignore the subject. That is not my point. It is the phoney sanctimony; the phoney judgmental posturing by the announcers of the events. Tell what happened. There is drama enough in the story, without the sanctimony.
And I, though I have no sympathy with Johnson flaunting society, have genuine admiration for Johnson's ability. The sanctimony only tended to diminish Johnson.
William Flax
O.J. Simpson was and is free to do whatever he wants, as long as it doesn't involve killing two people in cold blood. It's unfortunate that this commentator sees a question of guilt or innocence as a question of racism. Questions of fact shouldn't be muddied with people's personal opinions.
He did drive fast. Of course, what was fast in 1908 was less than the average turnpike speed now. Anybody know what kind of car Jackson drove?
Let's be fair. I'm sure they imported some Southerners to get a racist jury. /sarcasm
Top three Heavyweights of all time:
1.) Muhammad Ali-- a three-time champion who held the belt for all but a handful of years between 1964-80, Ali left his mark on the sport as no other figure has before or since. Witty, Brash, tenatious and almost superhumanly controversial, the former Cassius Clay might just have been the MOST important sports figure of the mid-twentieth century, taking his battles from Joe Frazier to the Supreme Court and back again.
2.) Rocky Marciano-- Gotta give some love to the ONLY man to ever retire the Heavyweight title undefeated and untied in his ENTIRE professional career. 59-0 speaks for itself, and Marciano had the good grace and intelligence to bow out when he finally got tired of his excellence. A good man as well as a good boxer.
3.) Joe Louis-- An Alabama boy's just got to stand up for the Alabama boxer who made good...REAL good. The Brown Bomber stomped through the '40's like a panzer blitzkrieg, but he stood up for what was right in a time of racial divisions and bigotry against black sportsmen.
LOL!
Yes, that stunning destruction of powerful "Big Cat" Williams by Ali. Only 206 1bs though,this great fighting machine. What a demolition. Then the Marciano punch that wrecked Jersey Joe Walcott in their first bout. Wow.
Once in a while something comes up to make these threads hum - and no unpleasantness. Somebody is going to come up with a thread titled. Name your greatest T/V fights of all time..... LOL.
I am so ashamed.
We definately agree on the sanctimony of the left. I'll just have to disagree with you about his 'flaunting'.
I saw part of it. Johnson also volunteered to fight for his country, which of course was not accepted because he was a fugitive.
I'm not surprised at the tone of this piece. The MSM throws money at people who write articles such as this.
It actually would be a good chance to zing that Democratic, academic, big govt., OWG icon Woodrow Wilson.
Maybe like Lincoln he was just hiding his gayness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.