The First Black Boxing Champions

Author : Colleen Aycock
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786461888
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The First Black Boxing Champions written by Colleen Aycock and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents fifteen chapters of biography of African American and black champions and challengers of the early prize ring. They range from Tom Molineaux, a slave who won freedom and fame in the ring in the early 1800s; to Joe Gans, the first African American world champion; to the flamboyant Jack Johnson, deemed such a threat to white society that film of his defeat of former champion and "Great White Hope" Jim Jeffries was banned across much of the country. Photographs, period drawings, cartoons, and fight posters enhance the biographies. Round-by-round coverage of select historic fights is included, as is a foreword by Hall-of-Fame boxing announcer Al Bernstein.

Author : William Gildea
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374280975
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Longest Fight written by William Gildea and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic, little-known story of Joe Gans, an early African-American sports hero and the welterweight champion of the world. Though he is largely unknown today, this book will change that with its emphasis on one key fight in 1906.

Author : Jason Winders
Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
ISBN 13 : 1682261778
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book George Dixon written by Jason Winders and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Biography of Canadian-born, Boston-raised boxer George Dixon (1870-1908), the first Black world champion of any sport and the first Black world boxing champion in any division"--

Author : Christopher Rivers
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0275999653
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Life and Battles written by Christopher Rivers and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-09-30 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African American historian Gerald Early refers to Jack Johnson (1878-1946), the first African American heavyweight champion of the world, as the first African American pop culture icon. Johnson is a seminal and iconic figure in the history of race and sport in America. This manuscript is the translation of a memoir by Johnson that was published in French, has never before been translated, and is virtually unknown. Originally published as a series of articles in 1911 and then in revised form as a book in 1914, it covers Johnson's colorful life and battles, both inside and outside the ring, up until and including his famous defeat of Jim Jeffries in Reno, on July 4, 1910. In addition to the fights themselves, the memoir recounts, among many other things, Johnson's brief and amusing career as a local politician in Galveston, Texas; his experience hunting kangaroos in Australia; and his epic bouts of seasickness. It includes portraits of some of the most famous boxers of the 1900-1915 era—such truly legendary figures as Joe Choynski, Jim Jeffries, Sam McVey, Bob Fitzsimons, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, and Stanley Ketchel. Johnson comments explicitly on race and the color line in boxing and in American society at large in ways that he probably would not have in a publication destined for an American reading public. The text constitutes genuinely new, previously unavailable material and will be of great interest for the many readers intrigued by Jack Johnson. In addition to providing information about Johnson's life, it is a fascinating exercise in self-mythologizing that provides substantial insights into how Johnson perceived himself and wished to be perceived by others. Johnson's personal voice comes through clearly-brash, clever, theatrical, and invariably charming. The memoir makes it easy to see how and why Johnson served as an important role model for Muhammad Ali and why so many have compared the two.

Author : Jack Johnson
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1787204782
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jack Johnson written by Jack Johnson and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1927, Jack Johnson’s autobiography, Jack Johnson: In the Ring and Out, remains the key source for information about his life. As he himself states in it: “I am astounded when I realize that there are few men in any period of the world’s history, who have led a more varied or intense existence than I [have].” Jack Johnson, who became the first black heavyweight boxing champion in the world in 1908, was the preeminent American sports personality of his era, a man whose success in the ring spurred a worldwide search, tinged with bigotry, for a “Great White Hope” to defeat him. Handsome, successful, and personable, Johnson was known as much for his exploits outside of the ring as for his boxing skills. He married three white women in a time when such interracial unions resulted in denunciations of him from the floor of the United States Congress. He made big money, spent it lavishly, and lived grandly. And in doing so he gained admirers and detractors all over the world and became, quite simply, one of the best known men of the early twentieth century.

Author : Adam J. Pollack
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 078642558X
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John L. Sullivan written by Adam J. Pollack and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essentially the last of the bare-knuckle heavyweight champions, John L. Sullivan was instrumental in the acceptance of gloved fighting. His charisma and popular appeal during this transitional period contributed greatly to making boxing a nationally popular, "legitimate" sport. Sullivan became boxing's first superstar and arguably the first of any sport. From his first match in the late 1870s through his final championship fight in 1892, this biography contains a thoroughly researched, detailed accounting of John L. Sullivan's boxing career. With special attention to the 1880s, the decade during which Sullivan came to prominence, it follows Sullivan's skill development and discusses his opponents and fights in detail, providing various viewpoints of a single event. Beginning with a discussion of early boxing practices, the sport itself is placed within sociological, legal and historical contexts including anti-prize fighting laws and the so-called "color line." A complete record of Sullivan's career is also included.

Author : Paul Beston
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442272902
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boxing Kings written by Paul Beston and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For much of the twentieth century, boxing was one of America’s most popular sports, and the heavyweight champions were figures known to all. Their exploits were reported regularly in the newspapers—often outside the sports pages—and their fame and wealth dwarfed those of other athletes. Long after their heyday, these icons continue to be synonymous with the “sweet science.” In The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the Ring, Paul Beston profiles these larger-than-life men who held a central place in American culture. Among the figures covered are John L. Sullivan, who made the heavyweight championship a commercial property; Jack Johnson, who became the first black man to claim the title; Jack Dempsey, a sporting symbol of the Roaring Twenties; Joe Louis, whose contributions to racial tolerance and social progress transcended even his greatness in the ring; Rocky Marciano, who became an embodiment of the American Dream; Muhammad Ali, who took on the U.S. government and revolutionized professional sports with his showmanship; and Mike Tyson, a hard-punching dynamo who typified the modern celebrity. This gallery of flawed but sympathetic men also includes comics, dandies, bookworms, divas, ex-cons, workingmen, and even a tough-guy-turned-preacher. As the heavyweight title passed from one claimant to another, their stories opened a window into the larger history of the United States. Boxing fans, sports historians, and those interested in U.S. race relations as it intersects with sports will find this book a fascinating exploration into how engrained boxing once was in America’s social and cultural fabric.

Author : Arly Allen
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476664447
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jess Willard written by Arly Allen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jess Willard, the "Pottawatomie Giant," won the heavyweight title in 1915 with his defeat of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 240 pounds, Willard was considered unbeatable in his day. He nonetheless lost to Jack Dempsey in 1919 in one of the most brutally one-sided contests in fistic history. Willard later made an initially successful comeback but was defeated by Luis Firpo in 1923 and retired from the ring. He died in 1968, largely forgotten by the boxing public. Featuring photographs from the Willard family archives, this first full-length biography provides a detailed portrait of one of America's boxing greats.

Author : Theresa Runstedtler
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520280113
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner written by Theresa Runstedtler and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the life and boxing career of Jack Johnson.

Author : Howard Sackler
Publisher : Samuel French, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 9780573609602
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Great White Hope written by Howard Sackler and published by Samuel French, Inc.. This book was released on 1968 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[The dramatist] has used his hero, a fighter based on the first Black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson ... as a symbol in part of Black aspiration"--Back cover.