Papa jack essays

Papa jack essays The Historical Significance of Jack Johnson One of the most prominent black athletes of the first half of the twentieth century was Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson, the first black heavy weight champion, held the heavyweight title for several years before loosing it to Jess Willard in Cuba in 1915. Johnson had a profound effect on race relations and he challenged racial barriers and taboos. His flamboyant personality and his incessant appetite for confrontation and white women ultimately led to his demise. He was fearless and had little respect for the conventions of the day. Through the rise of boxing, being a free black, and race relations are what made Jack Johnson significant in history. Jack Johnsons rise to boxing fame was during the late 19th and early 20th century and at that time boxing was one of the most popular sports in the world due to the increased leisure time of the Americans because of the Industrial Revolution. It was enthusiastically followed by people of all races and social classes and the heavy weight championship was considered by many to be the ultimate athletic prize. It was during this time, while just a teenager, that Jack Johnson began his boxing career in his hometown of Galveston, Texas. Before the turn of the century, he had moved on to broader venues, fighting professionally in the heavy weight class, and in 1903 Johnson had won the Negro heavy weight championship in California. The Negro heavy weight championship was a contrivance by California sportswriters, reflecting the fact that African-American boxers were not permitted to compete against white fighters in championship matches. As a symbol of power and prowess, the social ramifica tions of boxing titles ran incredibly deep. It was well-accepted at the turn of the century that blacks and whites were physically very different. Blacks were deemed cowardly, had weaker stomachs, smaller heads, smaller brains, and less physical endur...