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⢇CHAPTER 7 : THE BROWN BOMBER : JOE LOUIS Compared to the high-flying Lindy Hoppers or the fast-breaking, jump-shooting, flashy-passing, slam-dunking basketball players of the previous chapters, Joe Louis was positively ground-bound. Solid, soft-spoken, and powerful, as a representative figure Joe Louis seems to defy the airborne aesthetic of the late 1930s. But while Louis kept his feet on the ground, thousands of spectators did not. And while much of America was jumping up and down, celebrating his successes, Louis himself became a springboard for the aspirations of black Americans. As the most recognized black man of the 1930s, Louis was the first in the twentieth century to achieve widespread popularity among white Americans. And Louis played an important part in the revolution in American sports that began in the 1930s and continues to this day. Boxing, which had been in decline, surged in popularity, and other spectator sports seemed suddenly more important, too. In a time of increasing international tension, athletes such as the 1936 Olympians and Joe Louis achieved ambassadorial status. As they represented the United States to the world, they conferred citizenship on all African Americans. Louis’s fame continued into the war years, until Louis became the iconic, if laconic, patriot of World War II. At a time when the armed forces were segregated and only a small fraction of servicemen were black, how did a black man become one of the best-known faces in the American military? What allowed Americans to accept a black man as their cultural representative? Playing sports often took first- and second-generation ethnic Americans down the road to full citizenship, as if the sporting events of their new country were part of a long rite of initiation. Traditionally, boxing had featured white ethnic Americans, particularly the Irish. John L. Sullivan, son of Irish immigrants , became heavyweight champion in 1882 and held that title for ten years, afterward maintaining a vaudeville and melodrama career that lasted until 1915. Jews were also prominent in boxing—as fighters, as managers, as promoters, and, most important, as fans. So helpful was it to be Jewish in 114 C H A P T E R S E V E N boxing that in the 1930s the fighter Max Baer wore the Magen David (Star of David) on his trunks, even though he was not a practicing Jew, had only a limited claim to Jewish heritage on his father’s side, and had been raised a Catholic . Dan Parker of the New York Daily Mirror, who catered to a Jewish audience, said, “The closer Max Baer got to New York the more Jewish he became.”1 But fighters of African descent could not travel this passage to legitimization . Although John Sullivan established his reputation through a national tour offering $1,000 to any man who could last four rounds against him, he steadfastly refused to fight Peter “Black Prince” Jackson, who won the Australian heavyweight championship in 1886. Several African Americans won championships in lighter weight classes, but no black athlete had the chance to fight for the heavyweight championship before Jack Johnson. Historians rank Joe Jeannette, Sam McVey, and Sam Langford as the equal of any white boxer of the day, but none could book a fight with a white boxer. And after Johnson won the championship in 1908, he steadfastly refused to fight African Americans, depriving them of the chance to compete for the championship. When Johnson finally succeeded in securing a fight with reigning champion Tommy Burns, John L. Sullivan denounced Burns, saying: “Shame on the money-mad champion! Shame on the man who upsets good American precedents because there are Dollars, Dollars, Dollars in it.”2 Their 1908 World Championship match in Sydney, Australia, drew little attention—although Jack London covered it. But the following year, as Johnson successfully defended his title five times against white challengers, public antipathy toward him grew. Johnson verbally taunted and physically humiliated his opponents, flashed his gold teeth at the crowds, and boasted to reporters. Fond of jewelry, dramatic attire, fast cars, and beautiful white women, Johnson flouted all the conventions of a segregated society. His 1910 fight against retired champion Jim Jeffries attracted more attention than any other sporting event ever held in the United States. But the racial disturbances that followed in such places as Uvalda,Georgia,andPueblo,Colorado,aswellasHouston,NewYorkCity,and Washington, D.C., resulted in the deaths of at least eight African Americans.3 Twice indicted...

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