Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner
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101. “Toute l'Amérique espère en Frank Moran,” L'Auto, 11 June 1914.
102. Ibid.
103. “Pour le championnat du monde toutes catégories,” L'Auto, 24 June 1914.
104. Jacques Mortane, “Jack Johnson estil toujours Jack Johnson?” Excelsior, 22 June 1914.
105. “Pour le championnat du monde toutes catégories”; “Dans neuf jours, le championnat du monde sera peut-être un blanc,” L'Auto, 19 June 1914; “Le combat Jack Johnson-Frank Moran,” Excelsior, 21 June 1914.
106. “L'Amérique espère, mais Jack Johnson ‘a le sourire,’” L'Auto, 12 June 1914.
107. “Pour le championnat du monde toutes catégories”; “Jack Johnson contre Frank Moran,” L'Auto, 18 June 1914.
108. Indianapolis Freeman, 4 July 1914.
109. “Jack Johnson demeure champion,” L'Auto, 28 June 1914; F. H. Lucas, “Jack Johnson Retains His Title, but Moran Covers Himself with Glory,” Boxing, 4 July 1914
110. Billy Lewis, “Jack Johnson Still in Evidence,” Indianapolis Freeman, 29 August 1914.
111. “Bout Seemed Amateurish,” New York Times, 28 June 1914. Also see J. Murray, “Johnson-Moran Impressions and an Answer to the Great Ladies Question,” Boxing, 4 July 1914.
112. Colette, “Le Journal de Colette: Le ‘chiqué,’” Le Matin, 2 July 1914.
113. “Bout Seemed Amateurish.”; Lucas, “Jack Johnson Retains His Title, but Moran Covers Himself with Glory.”
114. “Jack Johnson Still in Evidence,” Indianapolis Freeman, 8 August 1914.
115. “Bout Seemed Amateurish.”
116. Lewis, “Jack Johnson Still in Evidence.”
117. Chicago Defender, 4 July 1914.
118. “Jack Johnson Still Master of ‘White Hopes’,” New York Age, 9 July 1914.
119. “Jack Johnson a Marvel,” New York Amsterdam News, 3 July 1914.
120. Lewis, “Jack Johnson Still in Evidence.”
121. Lewis, “The War Has Broken up the Fight Game in Europe.”
122. “Johnson in the Eye's [sic] of Paris & General Public,” Indianapolis Freeman, 16 May 1914.
123. Lewis, “The War Has Broken up the Fight Game in Europe.”
124. “Jack Johnson Retains Championship without Extending Himself,” Philadelphia Tribune, 4 July 1914.
125. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 362.
126. Quoted in Indianapolis Freeman, 3 October 1914.
127. “Jack Johnson Made Colonel of French Regiment,” Chicago Defender, 8 August 1914.
128. Quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 364.
129. On Scanlon's military service, see “Colored Boxer, French Lieutenant,” New York Amsterdam News, 8 January 1915; “With the French Legion,” Chicago Defender, 29 September 1917. On Bullard's war record, see Craig Lloyd, Eugene Bullard: Black Expatriate in Jazz-Age Paris (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 38-71.
130. Henri Dispan, “Au fil des rounds,” La Boxe et les boxeurs, 28 January 1914.
131. “Johnson Eludes U.S. Offices,” Guardian, 26 September 1914. Agents from the Department of Justice had reportedly followed Johnson to London hoping to apprehend him. Johnson always maintained that he had bribed U.S. officials during his escape in 1913, and a conspiracy to bribe was an extraditable offense in Britain.
132. Billy Lewis, “Jack Johnson Not a Citizen of France,” Indianapolis Freeman, 3 October 1914.
133. Allison Blakely, “The Negro in Imperial Russia: A Preliminary Sketch,” Journal of Negro History 61, no. 4 (1976): 355-56. For positive assessments of Russian race relations, see J. Bruce Grit, “Negro Poet of Royal Lineage,” Baltimore Afro-American, 5 June 1909; “Negro Soldiers for French Army,” Baltimore Afro-American, 21 August 1909.
134. “The Russian Mote and the Southern Beam,” Baltimore Afro-American, 1 November 1913; “They Appeal to the Csar of Russia,” Baltimore Afro-American, 27 January 1912. The Baltimore Afro-American had even noted that the conservative Russian newspaper Novoe vremya had used the antiblack riots in the wake of the Johnson's 1910 victory over Jeffries to argue for the inevitability of race prejudice, thereby justifying their own bloody campaigns against the Jews. “Foreign View of Race Prejudice,” Baltimore Afro-American, 24 September 1910.
135. Jack Johnson, In the Ring—And Out (1927; New York: Citadel Press, 1992), 92-93. An African American jockey named Jimmy “Wink” Winkfield recalled that Johnson had arrived in the midst of the wartime festivities at Russia's racetracks. Ed Hotaling, Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 146.
136. Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 363.
137. Washington Post, 26 August 1914.
138. “Jack Johnson Made Colonel of French Regiment.”
CHAPTER 6. VIVA JOHNSON!
The English translation of the chapter epigraph is taken from Richard V. McGehee, “The Dandy and the Mauler in Mexico: Johnson, Dempsey, et al., and the Mexico City Press, 1919-1927,” Journal of Sport History 23, no. 1 (1996): 25.
1. By examining both formal and informal interventions in countries throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, scholars have uncovered the many facets of U.S. influence abroad in this period. See, for example, Emily Rosenburg, Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999); Louis Pérez Jr., On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture (New York: HarperCollins, 1999); Gilbert Joseph, Catherine LeGrand, and Ricardo Salvatore, eds., Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations (Durham, NC: Duke University, 1998); Gerald R. Gems, The Athletic Crusade: Sport and American Cultural Imperialism (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006).
2. Daniel Fridman and David Sheinin, “Wild Bulls, Discarded Foreigners, and Brash Champions: US Empire and the Cultural Constructions of Argentine Boxers,” Left History 12, no. 1 (2007): 54.
3. “Spanish a Popular Language,” Chicago Defender, 13 February 1913.
4. “Chicago Woman Leads Fashion,” Chicago Defender, 8 November 1913. Also see “Around and About Chicago,” Chicago Defender, 10 October 1914.
5. “Brazil Welcomes Afro-Americans,” Chicago Defender, 14 March 1914.
6. “Col. Marshall Accepts South American Military Post,” Chicago Defender, 4 April 1914.
7. George Reid Andrews, “Race versus Class Association: The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1850-1900,” Journal of Latin American Studies 11, no. 1 (1979): 19-39; George Reid Andrews, “The Afro-Argentine Officers of Buenos Aires Province, 1800-1860,” Journal of Negro History 64, no. 2 (1979): 85-100.
8. Robert G. Rodriguez, The Regulation of Boxing: A History and Comparative Analysis of Policies among American States (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009), 166-67. Also see “Buenos Aires,” Chicago Defender, 12 December 1914; “Jack Johnson in South America,” Chicago Defender, 12 December 1914.
9. Jack Johnson, In the Ring—And Out (1927; New York: Citadel Press, 1992), 97.
10. “Young Grand Pre Enjoys Buenos Aires,” Chicago Defender, 8 May 1915. Grand Pre then left Buenos Aires, traveling to San Francisco by way of Ceylon, China, and Japan.
11. Willard's measurements are taken from “Johnson in Fine Form,” Chicago Defender, 3 April 1915. For more on Jess Willard, see Graeme Kent, The Great White Hopes: The Quest to Defeat Jack Johnson (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2005), 205-10; Geoffrey Ward, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (New York: Knopf, 2004), 365-66.
12. “Gibson to Bid for Jack Johnson Bout,” New York Times, 5 January 1915. The negotiators included John McKee of Cincinnati, representing Curley Brown of the Havana racing interests; James Coffroth, representing interests in Tijuana; a representative of a Juárez syndicate; and Billy Gibson, who held the official Cuban government license for organizing fights in Havana.
13. “Johnson to Fight Willard in Mexico,” New York Times, 9 January 1915. Born Doroteo Arango, Francisco “Pancho” Villa
was a key leader in the Mexican Revolution against Porfirio Díaz's dictatorial regime. Villa's work on behalf of Mexico's peasants made him a popular hero in his homeland and an infamous figure around the world. See Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998).
14. Reverends Perry J. Rice, Wesley Webdell, and J. F. Williams to Secretary William Jennings Bryan, 13 January 1915, RG 59, 812.4066, National Archives, College Park, MD. In subsequent notes NARA will refer to the National Archives in College Park.
15. Ibid.
16. JRB and JBB (Office of the Solicitor) to Mr. Hitch, 21 January 1915, RG 59, 812.4066, NARA. Also see Robert Lansing, Counselor for the Secretary of State to Reverends Perry J. Rice, Wesley Webdell, and J. F. Williams, 27 January 1915, RG 59, 812.4066, NARA.
17. “Jack Johnson's Pleasant Visit to Barbados,” Chicago Defender, 13 March 1915.
18. “Madam Walker Sails for Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 29 November 1913; “Mound City Happenings,” Chicago Defender, 25 April 1914.
19. Louis Martin Sears, “Frederick Douglass and the Mission to Haiti, 1889-1891,” Hispanic American Historical Review 21, no. 2 (1941): 222-38; Daniel Brantley, “Black Diplomacy and Frederick Douglass' Caribbean Experiences, 1871 and 1889-1891: The Untold History,” Phylon 45, no. 3 (1984): 197-209.
20. “American Influence Abroad,” Chicago Defender, 26 March 1910.
21. On 28 July 1915 the United States invaded Haiti and began its nineteen-year occupation of the black nation. The U.S. military worked to install a puppet leader and pushed through a new constitution to make Haiti more amenable to foreign investment. African American journalists and intellectuals commented on this imperial conquest at length. See Mary Renda, Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001); Brenda Gayle Plummer, Haiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992); Henry Lewis Suggs, “The Response of the African American Press to the United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934,” Journal of African American History 87, no. 1 (2002): 70-82; Brenda Gayle Plummer, “The Afro-American Response to the Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934,” Phylon 43, no. 2 (1982): 125-43; Rayford Logan, “James Weldon Johnson and Haiti,” Phylon 32, no. 4 (1971): 396-402.
22. “Jack Johnson Visits Barbados,” Barbados Globe and Colonial Advertiser, 8 February 1915. Also see “Jack Johnson Is on His Way to Mexico,” Chicago Defender, 27 February 1915.
23. “Jack Johnson's Pleasant Visit to Barbados.”
24. The Barbados Globe described the man as a Demeraran named Stanley. “Jack Johnson's Exhibition,” Barbados Globe and Colonial Advertiser, 10 February 1915.
25. “Jack Johnson Scores Victory in Barbados,” Chicago Defender, 20 March 1915.
26. “Jack Johnson Visits Barbados”; Johnson, In the Ring—And Out, 199.
27. “Would Bar Jack Johnson,” New York Times, 14 January 1915. Venustiano Carranza, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution, later became the president of Mexico in the post-Porfirio Díaz Mexican Republic. However, several factions, from reactionary landowners to the revolutionary forces of Emiliano Zapata and Francisco “Pancho” Villa, continued to dispute Carranza's leadership.
28. “Jack Johnson Sailing to Cuba,” New York Times, 12 February 1915; “Slim Chance for Johnson to Fight,” New York Times, 23 February 1915.
29. Pérez, On Becoming Cuban, 175; Gems, Athletic Crusade, 92.
30. “Havana Center of Boxing,” New York Times, 1 January 1915.
31. “Gibson to Bid for Jack Johnson Bout.” Also see “Interest in Boxing Grows,” Havana Daily Post, 8 February 1915.
32. On white American interest in Cuba as a space of play, see Rosalie Schwartz, Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997).
33. “The Fight in Cuba,” New York Times, 3 February 1915.
34. Gems, Athletic Crusade, 93.
35. “The Fight in Cuba.”
36. “Both Gladiators Are Confident of Victory,” Havana Daily Post, 20 February 1915; “M'Vea Wins over Jim Johnson in 20 Rounds,” Havana Daily Post, 21 February 1915.
37. On battle royals, see “Wednesday Night March 24 at the Stadium,” Havana Daily Post, 23 March 1915; “Sweeney-M'Coy Saturday Night,” Havana Daily Post, 2 April 1915; “'Knockout' Sweeney to Battle Al Mc Coy,” Havana Daily Post, 3 April 1915.
38. Willard B. Gatewood, Black Americans and the White Man's Burden, 1898-1903 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 17-19, 24-25, 30.
39. Ibid., 27, 62, 162, 164, 167.
40. See “Returns from Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 4 May 1912; “Personal Mention,” Chicago Defender, 2 November 1912; “Dr. Booker T. Washington and Dr. George C. Hall to Make Long Trip,” Chicago Defender, 27 January 1912; “Sail for Africa and Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 16 December 1911; “Mother Frances of Oblate Sisters Visits Chicago,” Chicago Defender, 4 July 1914. Also see Lisa Brock and Digna Castañeda Fuertes, eds., Between Race and Empire: African Americans and Cubans before the Cuban Revolution (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998); Frank Guridy, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
41. “A Queen of Song Elated over Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 23 March 1912. Also see “Through Cuba with Madame Hackley,” Chicago Defender, 13 April 1912. On Hackley's life, see Lisa Brevard, A Biography of E. Azalia Smith Hackley: African-American Singer and Social Activist (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001).
42. “Cuba at Letts,” Chicago Defender, 23 March 1912. Also see “Prominent Men Going to Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 10 February 1912. African American businesswomen were also traveling to Cuba in this period. See “Only Lady Manufacturer,” Chicago Defender, 31 August 1912.
43. “Cuba in Throes of Revolt,” Chicago Defender, 25 May 1912; “Cuban Revolt Seems Over,” New York Times, 2 July 1912; “Revolt Bloodless to Cuban Troops,” New York Times, 28 June 1912.
44. Philadelphia Tribune quoted in David J. Hellwig, “The African-American Press and United States Involvement in Cuba, 1902-1912,” in Between Race and Empire: African Americans and Cubans before the Cuban Revolution, ed. Lisa and Digna Castañeda Fuertes Brock (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), 79. The Washington Bee reported on the potential barring of nonwhite immigrants.
45. Aline Helg, Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 3-6, 92.
46. Ibid., 146-47.
47. Ibid., 17-18, 194-226. Also see Aline Helg, “Black Men, Racial Stereotyping, and Violence in the U.S. South and Cuba at the Turn of the Century,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, no. 3 (2000): 576-604.
48. “Annexing Cuba,” Chicago Defender, 21 February 1914.
49. “Johnson at Havana,” New York Times, 22 February 1915.
50. Jack Johnson, “Creo que vencere a Willard,” Diario de la Marina, 21 March 1915.
51. “Johnson Agrees on Welch as Referee,” New York Times, 26 March 1915.
52. “Johnson vs. Willard,” Havana Daily Post, 24 March 1915.
53. Thanks to Brian Herrera for sharing his analysis of the racial implications of Johnson's fight in New Mexico.
54. Helg, Our Rightful Share, 16. Also see Alejandra Bronfman, Measures of Equality: Social Science, Citizenship, and Race in Cuba, 1902-1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).
55. “President of Cuba to See Big Fight,” New York Times, 2 April 1915.
56. G. W. Krick, “Stadium Stabs,” Havana Daily Post, 3 April 1915; “A las 12:30 p.m.,” La Lucha, 5 April 1915.
57. “President of Cuba to See Big Fight.”
58. “El Match Willard-Jhonson [sic],” Diario de la Marina, 31 March 1915.
59. Runyon quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 376.
60. “Big Heavyweights in C
uba Sized Up,” New York Times, 4 April 1915. Also see “La Guardia Rural,” Diario de la Marina, 4 April 1915. The Rural Guard planned to have eight hundred horsemen in place to preserve the peace.
61. Quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 375.
62. “Jack Johnson's Wife in Fight,” Los Angeles Times, 26 March 1915.
63. See the correspondence between W. N. King and William Gonzales, 17 April to 7 May 1915, RG 84, 840.6, NARA. Although Gonzales admitted that reports of the incident had been “somewhat exaggerated,” he agreed to pass along the group's money to Valdez.
64. New York Sun, 27 February 1915, quoted in Lester A. Walton, “The Cuban Negro,” New York Age, 4 March 1915. Cushman Albert Rice was born in 1872 in Willmar, Minnesota. An officer in the Spanish-American War, he later became one of the foremost Americans in Cuba, where he owned several cattle ranches. See Dan Hardy, “Cushman Rice: The Man who was Gatsby,” Writing in the Margins (Spring 2008), www.stthomas.edu/english/margins/archives/Springo8%20WITM.pdf (accessed 24 August 2010).
65. Ibid.
66. “Big Heavyweights in Cuba Sized Up.”
67. “Jack Johnson Is Favorite in Coming Fight,” Chicago Defender, 27 March 1915.
68. “Menocal Rebukes Fight Gamblers,” New York Times, 3 April 1915; Signor Pareada, “Vanderbilt Backs Champion to Win,” Chicago Defender, 3 April 1915. Gonzales had warned President Menocal about the reports of his bet on Johnson in U.S. newspapers. Menocal then dispatched a statement denying the rumors to the Associated Press. See the statement dated 3 April in RG 84, 840.6, NARA.
69. “32,000 at Fight,” New York Times, 7 April 1915; Herbert Swope, “Johnson Knockout Dramatic Climax to Battle,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 April 1915; “Little Betting on Fight,” New York Times, 6 April 1915.
70. Damon Runyon quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 377.
71. “32,000 Saw the Fight,” La Lucha, 6 April 1915; “W. A. Gaines Returns from Georgia Trip,” Chicago Defender, 17 April 1915; Johnson, “Creo que vencere a Willard.”
72. Swope, “Johnson Knockout Dramatic Climax to Battle.”