Jack Johnson's (eventual) return
1920s cigarette card of Jack Johnson. George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "Jack Johnson." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1920 - 1929.
One hundred years ago today … the word of Jack Johnson's return to professional boxing animated Tribune sportswriter W. O. M'Geehan's column.
New York Tribune, 27 December 1920, p. 10. Chronicling America.
But Jackson's biggest impact on New York in 1920 may have been unrelated to boxing: his purchase of the Club Douglas on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, which he turned into Club DeLuxe (Levering Lewis 209). Three years later Johnson would sell the property to gangster Owney Madden, who would turn it into the famous Cotton Club.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Cotton Club marquee and front entrance, Harlem, New York, ca. 1920s." The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Johnson was the first African American heavyweight champion, and as such, was resented by the US establishment. It was, however, another transgression of racial hierarchy that made him an object of persecution, of trumped-up legal prosecution, by US law enforcement. As Denise C. Morgan writes: “Johnson was hated by White Americans for exhibiting a strong sense of individuality, for excelling in a sport that had previously been closed to men of his race, and for asserting his right to love the three White women whom he married” (3). in 1912 and again in 1913, Johnson was charged with violations of the Mann Act. The first charge failed, the second stuck, and Johnson spent seven years in exile, living in Europe and Mexico, boxing in matches outside of US organizations (Hawks 76).
These experiences made Johnson a vexed but figure within Black culture, but ultimately lionized by many. Two days before The Tribune column above, Black educator and civil rights activist William Pickens published a letter in the New York Age lauding Johnson as a spiritual hero.
New York Age, 25 December 1920, p. 5. Chronicling America.
Johnson spent 1920 first in exile in Mexico, then, after surrendering himself to US authorities, in Leavenworth prison. Yet he was never far from the New York media's thought.
Daily News, 3 September 1920, p.3. Chronicling America.
The NY papers reported on his sentencing, and then his practice fights in jail. Over several days in December, the Evening World ran a series of (apparently supposedly) humorous remarks by Neal R. O’'Hara about the possibility of Johnson starting a vaudeville career.
Evening World, 8 December 1920, p.6. Chronicling America.
References/ Further reading:
Hawks, Robert Bryan, "Boxing Men: Ideas Of Race, Masculinity, And Nationalism" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1162.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Morgan, Denise C. “Jack Johnson, Reluctant Hero of the Black Community,” Akron Law Review 3(32) 529-556.
– Jonathan Goldman, December 27, 2020
TAGS: Black history, African American, boxing, boxer, sport, celebrity, law, racism, nightclubs