Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson was so good at boxing that he scared an entire generation of racists. White authorities chose to make an example of him with one of America’s most infamous laws.

Featured image: Jack Johnson posing with his wife Lucille. Despite the speech against miscegenation given by the prosecutor of his most famous legal case, Johnson was not convicted for dating or marrying a white woman, but for lending a small sum of money to his ex-girlfriend. (Image source)

Jack Johnson photographed early in his career. Even for a heavyweight boxer, Johnson’s physique was famously impressive in comparison to his competition. (Image source)

A photograph of the championship fight between Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns. (Image source)

Video of the fight between Johnson and Burns. The video cuts out before the end because police made the camera operators turn their machines off. (Image source)

Jack Johnson at the wheel of his 90 horsepower Thomas Flyer–an extremely fancy car at the time. Johnson had famously upscale tastes in cars and clothes. (Image source)

A small section of the crowd waiting for the Johnson-Jeffries fight. (Image source)

A photograph from the Johnson-Jeffries fight. (Image source)

A cartoon making fun of the extremely violent race riots that broke out in the aftermath of the Johnson–Jeffries fight. Although this appears to be depicting Black men attacking white victims, most of the actual casualties were Black people attacked by while mobs. (Image source)

Jack with his wife Etta in 1910. (Image source)

Jack Johnson in Buenos Aires in 1914. The most famous pictures of Johnson show him in boxing attire, but he was known for being well-dressed out of the ring. (Image source)

An infamous photograph of Johnson’s defeat in the Willard-Johnson fight. This image was spread as proof that Willard was the “great white hope” the boxing world had been waiting for to restore what racists believed was the natural order. (Image source)

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