Greetings. Ever since Prince won his BET Lifetime Achievement Award, I have been checking out his latest stuff and to me, his Lotus Flow3r cd is great in my honest opinion. No lie about that. But I was watching an interview he did with good friend Tavis Smiley, and he spoke on how he was embracing his blackness, being a Jehovah Witness and how he really enjoyed the Ken Burns' documentary, "Unforgivable Blackness" which is the story of Jack Johnson. The first black Heavyweight Champion of the World. When he mentioned it, I put it away for future reference, but for some reason last night, I was compelled to sit down and watch this program. Let me say this first. It has been a hundred years this month since Jack Johnson went in a ring in Reno, Nevada, and beat James J Jeffries, who had already retired unopposed but had been clamored to come out of retirement and beat Jack Johnson. ain't that something. But I would have to go back a bit further. See, at that time, boxing was still a sport in the making. But Jack Johnson worked his way up in the business so much so, that when he fought all the others, the white ones felt seriously that he was beneath them. Now, at that time, coming up the ring, you fought blacks, but once you got to the championship, you didn't do that no more and the thing with it was Johnson had come this far and Tommy Burns didn't want to touch him and Jeffries went into retirement unopposed to stay away. It took a promoter to put $35,000 on the table for Tommy Burns to do the job. He took it after Johnson went after him relentlessly to fight him. And the fight was on in Sydney, Australia on Dec 26, 1908; Burns and Johnson fought over 14 rounds before the police stopped the fight and declared Jack Johnson the winner. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World. His purse for that fight? a measly $5,000. made me mad. Now today, whenever a sister gets that on her income taxes, that ain't nothing to sneeze at. not now, and certainly not then. But to me, he should have gotten at least half of what Burns got. but then the world then was way different then than it is now. After that fight, white folks were begging James J. Jeffries, who was farming alfafa in his farm in California, to PLEASE take this black man on. They felt that since Johnson beat Burns, Burns wasn't a real heavyweight champion. Ain't that something? this man got his belt fair and square before, but because a black man beat him, it wasn't legit.. see stuff like that was what Jack Johnson dealt with daily. what a thing. and now, they were begging this other champion, who left the ring peacefully to come and beat Jack Johnson. whenever Johnson went into the ring on both of those fights, there were hardly a black face in the crowd, so he got nothing but boos. but that didn't bother him, he showed love to the crowds just the same and fought just as hard. When Jeffries finally agreed to fight Johnson, it was 1910, so although the fight was scheduled for L.A., officials there felt it too barbaric and folks had to scramble for another place, which they found in Reno, Nevada. There, On the 4th of July, 1910, Jack Johnson beat James J.Jeffries after giving him the business for fifteen rounds. Gentleman Jim Corbett even helped Jeffries train for the fight, but Jeffries, though a great contender and who was unopposed, was no match for Jack Johnson and after knocking him down twice in the fight(which was the first two times it EVER happened to James Jeffries in his whole career), they shut the fight down and Johnson, after proving and shutting up all critics and opponents emerged still Heavyweight Champion of the World. Oh did the black people have a ball. Oh what a time, but whites very upset over the victory retaliated terribly. (Bernice McFadden's book "Glorious" speaks of a fictional event that occurred because of that very fight)a lot of blacks were beaten, raped, and even killed just because they were glad that Johnson won. they were not to show any happiness that he won. Can you believe it? I remember my mother,father and the lady I care for talk about Joe Louis fights. Oh, they were proud of Mr Joe Louis. proud. but even then, you had to be careful in the South when you played the radio or around white folks too because that was a no no then too. So I can imagine how African Americans felt in 1908, 1910 knowing this black man from Texas, beat two white men to be the champion. Oh that was something to behold. He kept the title until 1915, when the Potawattamie Giant, Jess Willard beat him in Havana Cuba.
Now, Jack Johnson was unapologetic for his life on and off the ring. He dealt with white women, was unfaithful, married three women all white. Unknown to some, he did deal with black women too, but preferred white women and for the time, that was a true NO NO. folks were getting jailed and killed just because they may have looked at one, or if one said she got "attacked" by one if that be the case. Plenty brothers in those days were lynched or killed behind that. The Rosewood(FL)massacre as well as Greenwood(Tulsa OK) started on a white woman's say so. He ended up in jail after fleeing the US for some years behind it, but he eventually came home and did his time and was released.
I try hard when I hear about things, people and events, I go online, to the library, whatever, and I do some checking. Because of Prince talking about Jack Johnson, I started taking the time to read about the other opponents he fought; how he fought his black counterparts but they kept it easy if you may say. I have had a lady say well, he had white women in his life. Yes, he did. He had them. but what I take away from him was he was unapologetically black and didn't try to be nothing but black but he loved white women. once he told some people in a boxing place that he was a "brunette" in the ring with "blondes" and he caught hell for it. Unforgivable Blackness is at your local store, Walmart, Amazon.com, PBS.com and other outlets. A companion book accompanies the documentary.