Jack Johnson

Richard Yarde

Portrait

41.5×28 in

Watercolor

Jack Johnson, nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”was an American Boxer who, at the height of the Jim Crow era, became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908 to 1915. His 1910 bout with previous title holder James J. Jeffries was dubbed the “Fight of the Century”. After Jeffries threw in the towel to end the fight in order to deny Johnson the knockout, race riots erupted across the country as Jeffries had been held up as the “Great White Hope” that would uphold white supremacy.

A frequent target of racial animosity, Johnson was arrested in 1912 on the grounds that traveling with his soon to be wife, Lucille Cameron (who was white and was alleged to be a prostitute) violated the Mann Act which prohibited “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. After jumping bail and living in South America and Mexico for several years, he surrendered to federal agents and was in Leavenworth Penitentiary until July of 1921.