Papa jack

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 Johnson’s 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

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In 1910, he beat former heavy weight champion, Jim Jefferies so badly that it humiliated whites. However, in 1883 the courts ironically declared the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. Johnson’s brazen and sometimes reckless behavior did a tremendous amount of damage to race relations in America. Johnson did not want to stay in the south because ninety percent of the black Americans lived, worked, suffered and died in the south. Blacks were deemed cowardly, had weaker stomachs, smaller heads, smaller brains, and less physical endurance. They lived hedonistic lifestyles with a blatant disregard for death or anger. In this case, the blacks had to adjust to the freedoms that the whites took for granted and that were granted to them. Furthermore, with the Civil Rights Acts of 1875 congress attempted to uphold America’s creed of democracy and equality by legislating equal treatment in public facilities such as public transportation, theaters, hotels, and restaurants. His hatred for the white world was almost as deep as his longing to be part of it. The 14th amendment also contained the “equal protection clause,” a clause prohibiting states from depriving any person from life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or from denying any person of the equal protection of the laws.

Another one of the main historical themes in Papa Jack was the issue of race. As a result of this event, race riots ensued all over America. With the help of the 13th and 14th amendments which abolished human servitude and made blacks citizens and the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves in the Confederate states, was an effort to democratize American society. He was not bound by custom, background, or race.

Approximate Word count = 886
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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