Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Pierce Egan (Boxiana) and A.J. Liebling (The Sweet Science) would love this one.

Growing up in the Midwest, we knew nothing about Jack Johnson. Only Joe Louis appeared as the iconic boxing champion we kids admired. Even our parents and grandparents seemed to know nothing about Johnson. However, at this moment, my 86-year old father is reading this book. Perhaps I bought for it him to redress past oversight. Only through the stage play and film, "The Great White Hope" did we gain an introduction to the man Jack Johnson. Ward's book fills a goodly number of historical gaps, and even when specifics are ambiguous (Johnson himself offered several versions of his life's events), the larger picture of a man denied his fundamental humanity emerges. This is no mere hagiography of the man. Johnson, ever clearly a self-confident man, is present in the pages with his failures, foibles, his faults. But a generation or two passed him over, shut him out of their memories, failed to add his powerful presence as heavyweight champion to stories told to newer generations. The reason for this oversight was fear. Johnson's insistence upon his manhood, as much or more manhood than his contemporaries, was a fearsome thing for black men to display. Choosing one's own style of abundant living or a woman of one's desiring, regardless of color or custom ran powerfully against the expectations of black subservience. Whites feared this usurpation of their presumed entitlement, and among blacks too there were those who feared what form of white revenge might be visited upon them because of Johnson's perceived impertinence. Ward offers readers a recapturing of gloomy early 20th Century racial politics combined with Jack Johnson's poised and mesmerizing stance against a world in overwhelming refusal to understand and accept him. He fought for and won the heavyweight championship not to represent black hopes and ambitions against whites (though these hopes were surely buoyed by his unprecedented victories). He joined the fray as simply one man against another man, pitting wit, style, grace, and strength to win. Although DNA now provides unassailable scientific proof for the insignificance of skin color in the human species, at the turn of the 20th Century, Jack Johnson proved this with his fists.

This book proves to be an interesting biography about a man who choose to lived his life as he see fit and not the way society saw fit. He became a heavyweight champion of the boxing world, showed off his wealth and proves to be most unapologic about his lifestyle. He was a non-conformist in a world that demanded conformity. This man was Jack Johnson, considered as one of the finest heavyweight boxing champions and he was also black man ignoring the rules of white America. This biography make it clear that by ignoring the rules of white America, Johnson had to fight, not only in the ring but outside of it as well. In some ways, Jack Johnson was a combination of Muhammad Ali and Barry Bond of his era. Unlike those two gentlemen, Johnson lived in a period of extreme low tolerance for any black man not conforming to the social standard. Johnson's taste for white women, his affuent lifestyle and his brash words made him one of the most hated black man among white America and caused of discord among black America. His disrespect for Joe Louis toward the end of his life also caused him many black supporters. He seem to be a man without color, doing what he want regardless of what white or black people thought about it. Geoffrey C. Ward managed to write a highly interesting biography on this individual. He separate Johnson from his myths, legends and lies to create a honest picture. This was probably somewhat difficult since Johnson, his friends and his infinite enemies were behind the myths, legends and lies. What comes out is a highly readable, very informative and pretty interesting biography of a man who simply refused boxed himself in. Book come highly recommended and an excellent study of racial relationship between black and white America.

Geoffrey Ward has specialized in writing the companion volumes to the various documentaries (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, Mark Twain, and The West) created by Ken Burns. This coffee-table size book is no different from the other books in this American history series. Well-written and lavished with rare and numerous photos, it tells more the story of an era through the career of boxer Jack Johnson. The one constant theme of the many joint projects between Mr. Ward and Mr. Burns is race -- and they explore the life of this attention-seeking boxer (similiar to Mohammed Ali a half century later) to examine the everyday racism present in the early 1900's. This is not the definative biography of Jack Johnson -- for that the reader must go elsewhere for dates and boxing lore. Nor is it the interpretive account of the man (though they come close)--for that the reader should either read the play or view the 1970 James Earl Jones bio film, "The Great White Hope" (now out on DVD). But if the reader is interested in the history and attitudes of Americans in the first half of the 20th century as seen through the life of Jack Johnson, then this is your book.

The title, all by itself, sums up Jack Johnson's life. Born in Texas in 1878, only 13 years after the end of the Civil War, in the heyday of the Klu Klux Klan he emerged as an early day Mohammed Ali. As a fighter he was probably the best of his time. As a flamboyant character outside the ring he seemed deliberately out to tweak the noses of the white (and some of the black) establishment. And if he excelled in the ring, he truly triumphed at nose tweaking. He told outlandish stories. He attracted women of all races as he traveled from city to city and country to country. And as he took on all comers in the prize ring, he took on all comers among the ladies as well. This was enough, at that time in the South, to get him lynched. One of his episodes with a young lady resulted in him being convicted of the Mann act. This act made it illegal to transport womes across state lines for amoral purposes. Originally intended as a way to stop prostitution (who were they kidding), it was also applied in mixed race situations against the negro man. Eventually this gave him nearly a year in federal prison. Extensively researched, this is a brilliant biography of a most colorful character, who if he'd been white would have been a hero.

Admittedly I'm a bit of a boxing fan so the life of Jack Johnson holds some interest for me. And while Johnson's career and his fights are well-presented, the real genius of Ward's book comes in the way he eloquently fills in the blanks of an amazing man who lived the life he wanted with all of society trying to prevent him from doing just that. I'd hate to see this book get relegated to sports sections in book stores when it so clearly is a well-written, remarkable biography about a groundbreaking man that everyohne should read.