Heavyweight Champ Jack Johnson

This year marks an odd irony in Texas: the centennial of heavyweight champ Jack Johnson's arrest for boxing.

Johnson, who was born in Galveston and honed his physical skills by lifting cotton bales as a youngster in the Newton County river port of Belgrade, became the heavyweight title in 1910 when he defeated Jim Jeffries.

But eight years earlier, Johnson was thrown in jail in Galveston for violating a state law banning boxing.

Johnson was born of poor black parents in 1878, the second of six children of former slave Henry Johnson and his wife Tiny.

He kicked around Texas picking up odd jobs as a dockworker, porter, and barberšs helper. He began his boxing career as a sparring partner and participated in "battles royal" where black youths fought each other and white spectators threw money to the winner.

Johnson left Galveston shortly after his 1901 arrest and began wandering the U.S., fighting and gaining admiration for his toughness.

In 1903, he won the Negro heavyweight championship. Jeffries, the reigning white heavyweight champion, refused to cross the color line and meet Johnson in the ring.

When Johnson defeated Tommy Burns in Australia to technically win the heavyweight title, he wasnšt officially recognized until he defeated Jeffries in Las Vegas in 1910.

Jeffries was the first in a series of recruited "white hopes" to fight Johnson.

In 1913 Johnson fled the U.S. after a contrived conviction for a violation of the Mann Act, which forbade the transportation of white women interstate for the purpose of prostitution. Facing a prison term, Johnson toured Europe, Canada and Mexico. He lost his championship to white challenger Jess Willard in Cuba in 1915.

Johnson returned to the U.S. in 1920, was jailed in Leavenworth, and became the prisonšs athletic director. After his release, he returned to boxing, but his professional career was over. For most of his life, Johnson was a non-conformist, turning to fast cars, white women, and expensive jewels. He often defied a hostile press which criticized his "golden smile and white wives."

Following three marriages, Johnson died in a North Carolina automobile accident in 1946. While Johnson was one of Galvestonšs most famous athletes, the Island City has been reluctant to honor his life.

In the 1980s an artist erected a black-metal, modernistic sculpture in a city park to honor Johnson, but the sculpture became the target of racist attacks and salt air, and was removed.


All Things Historical Nov. 18-24, 2001
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
Published with permission
Bob Bowman is a former president of the East Texas Historical Association and the author of 28 books on East Texas history and folklore.