Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner

by Theresa Runstedtler

  73. Ibid. In this context the term “yellow” meant coward.

  74. “Cowboy Wins Battle When Jack Weakens,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 April 1915. For a summary of the fight, see Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 377-79.

  75. “The Downfall of Johnson,” Richmond Planet, 10 April 1915.

  76. Runyon quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 379; Swope, “Johnson Knockout Dramatic Climax to Battle.”

  77. “Cowboy Wins Battle When Jack Weakens”; “32,000 at Fight”; “Story of the Battle,” New York Times, 6 April 1915; Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 380.

  78. Swope, “Johnson Knockout Dramatic Climax to Battle”; “Story of the Battle.”

  79. Quoted in Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 380.

  80. Billy Lewis, “The Fight That Failed,” Indianapolis Freeman, 17 April 1915.

  81. “Willard's Punch Knocks Joy out of ‘Black Belt,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, 6 April 1915; Lester A. Walton, “Fight Talk,” New York Age, 15 April 1915.

  82. James Weldon Johnson, “The Passing of Jack Johnson,” New York Age, 8 April 1915. On James Weldon Johnson's international experiences, see James Weldon Johnson, Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson (New York: Viking, 1933, reprint 1968).

  83. Johnson, “The Passing of Jack Johnson.” Also see “The Fall of Our Champion,” Chicago Defender, 10 April 1915.

  84. Johnson, “The Passing of Jack Johnson.” The Battle of Hastings (1066) was the decisive Norman victory in the Norman conquest of England, and the Battle of Agincourt (1415) was an important English triumph over the French in the Hundred Years' War.

  85. “Laying Down His Crown,” New York Amsterdam News, 9 April 1915.

  86. “Willard Victor,” New York Times, 6 April 1915.

  87. M. Alvarez Marrón, “Sigue el boxeo,” Diario de la Marina, 13 April 1915. Also see “Se acordó prohibir el boxeo,” Diario de la Marina, 10 April 1915; “Miss Cecilia Wright y el Boxeo,” Diario de la Marina, 28 March 1915.

  88. Ricardo Perez Valdes, “Algo acerca de ‘toros y boxeo,’” Diario de la Marina, 20 March 1915.

  89. Jack Curley, “Forgive Their Enemies,” La Lucha, 4 April 1915; “El Match Willard-Johnson,” Diario de la Marina, 29 March 1915; “Had Curley Arrested,” La Lucha, 7 April 1915; “Se Habla John Robinson,” La Lucha, 8 April 1915.

  90. Alvarez Marrón, “Sigue el boxeo.”

  91. “Boxing in Cuba Legal,” New York Times, 13 May 1915; “Boxing Legal Says Supreme,” Havana Daily Post, 13 May 1915. The court had rendered the decision in dismissing a case against Governor Bustillo of Havana province, which charged that he was guilty of breaking the law by personally attending the Willard-Johnson fight.

  92. Havana also had the Arena Colon and the Stadium de Marina. Fernando Gil, “Cuba and Its Athletes,” The Ring, December 1923; Pérez, On Becoming Cuban, 176.

  93. Gil, “Cuba and Its Athletes.”

  94. Elio Menéndez and Victor Joaquin Ortega, Kid Chocolate: ‘El boxeo soy yo…’ (Havana: Editorial ORBE, 1980), 12; Gems, Athletic Crusade, 95. Sardiñias-Montalbo was born on 6 January 1910 in Cerro, Cuba. He turned professional in 1927 and was the world junior lightweight champion from 1931 to 1933.

  95. “Jess Willard Is Not Considered Real Champion,” Chicago Defender, 24 April 1915.

  96. “No Passport for Johnson,” New York Times, 10 April 1915; “American News and Notes,” Boxing, 28 April 1915; “No Passagert [sic] for Johnson the Order,” La Lucha, 9 April 1915; “Jack Johnson corre peligro de que lo extraditen,” La Lucha, 9 April 1915; “Johnson Leaves Tonight,” La Lucha, 8 April 1915; “Jack Johnson to Sail for Europe Today,” Havana Daily Post, 20 April 1915.

  97. Gus Rhodes wrote glowing reports of his uncle's activities in Europe. See “Ocean Trip Has No Terrors for Gus Rhodes,” Chicago Defender, 17 July 1915; “Color No Barrier Here,” Chicago Defender, 11 December 1915. In addition to Johnson's recruiting efforts, he also visited local hospitals to perform for wounded soldiers. The name “Jack Johnson” even became part of British wartime vernacular, used to describe Germany's destructive artillery shells as well as a popular dance (the Jack Johnson Glide) enjoyed by servicemen and their lady friends. See “Jack Johnson Still Helping,” Chicago Defender, 11 December 1915; “Cupid Aids Recruiting,” New York Times, 25 December 1914; “Dash of the Indian Troops: Dodging ‘Jack Johnson's,’” Times, 12 April 1915; “A Stoic of the Scots Guards,” Times, 12 April 1915; “Advice to the O.T.C.'s,” Times, 12 April 1915.

  98. “Take Away Passport of American Writer,” New York Times, 17 November 1916; “King's Bench Division: An Action against Jack Johnson,” Times, i March 1916; Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 388.

  99. “Jack Johnson Boxing in Spain,” New York Times, i June 1916; “King Alfonso Patron of Champ, Jack Johnson,” New York News, i June 1916; “‘Jack’ Johnson in Charity Bull Fight,” Chicago Defender, 12 August 1916; “J. Johnson, Bullfighter,” New York Times, 20 June 1916. On 2 March 1916 Johnson fought against his friend and well-known dadaist poet Arthur Cravan. The match was a pitiful sight. As Johnson toyed with Cravan the Spanish public flooded the ring in protest. See Randy Roberts, Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (New York: Free Press, 1983), 206-7; Ward, Unforgivable Blackness, 388-89.

  100. Johnson was not the only African American whose loyalty and patriotism were questioned during the Great War. Black newspapers and organizations came under a great degree of government surveillance. Theodore Kornweibel Jr., Investigate Everything: Federal Efforts to Compel Black Loyalty during World War I (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001).

  101. John W. Lang, Military Attaché, American Embassy, Madrid, to Director of Military Intelligence, Washington, DC, “Jack Johnson,” 18 January 1919, RG 65, M1085, Reel 874, 5040, NARA.

  102. The Favorite Magazine (Chicago), circa 1919, quoted in Gerald Horne, Black and Brown: African Americans and the Mexican Revolution, 19101920 (New York: New York University Press, 2005), 28. For a detailed discussion of Johnson's exploits in Mexico, see Horne, Black and Brown, 25-38.

  103. John W. Lang, Military Attaché, American Embassy, Madrid, to Director of Military Intelligence, Washington, DC, “Jack Johnson.”

  104. Horne, Black and Brown, 21-24. Also see Arnold Shankman, “The Image of Mexico and the Mexican-American in the Black Press, 1890-1935,” Journal of Ethnic Studies 3, no. 2 (1975): 43-56; J. Fred Rippy, “A Negro Colonization Project in Mexico, 1894-1896,” Journal of Negro History 6, no. i (1921): 66-73. Veracruz already had its own Afro-Mexican population dating back to the colonial period. Patrick J. Carroll, Blacks in Colonial Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and Regional Development, 2nd ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001).

  105. Bob Scanlon, “The Record of a Negro Boxer,” in Negro: An Anthology, ed. Nancy Cunard (1934; New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1970), 208; G. W. Slaughter, “Mexico Offers Negroes of United States Great Opportunities,” Chicago Defender, 26 March 1910.

  106. “Mexico Gives Land to American Negroes,” Chicago Defender, 21 January 1911.

  107. El Imparcial quoted in “20,000 Negroes Coming to Mexico,” Chicago Defender, 11 February 1911.

  108. Horne, Black and Brown, 22-23. On the invisibility of blackness in the Mexican national imagination, see Marco Polo Hernandez Cuevas, African Mexicans and the Discourse on Modern Nation (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004).

  109. See part III, “The Years of Revolution, 1910-1940,” in John M. Hart, Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico since the Civil War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Horne, Black and Brown, 128-32.

  110. “Sergt. John Hunt Defends 9th Cavalry,” Chicago Defender, 12 October 1912.

  111. See Horne, Black and Brown, 69-87.

  112. “General Villa of Mexico G. Goldsby Who Deserted United States Cavalry,” Chicago Defender, 7 March 1914. Also see “'Villa a Negro' Says Explorer,” New York Age, 26 March 1914; “Who is Gen. Villa?” Indianapolis Freeman, 4 April 1914; “General
Villa, Head of Rebel Army Said to Be an American Negro,” New York Age, 26 February 1914; “Says He Talked with Gen. Villa,” New York Age, 12 March 1914; “General Villa Is George Goldsby, Lived in Vinita,” Chicago Defender, 14 March 1914.

  113. Although another report claimed that Pancho Villa was the 10th Cavalry veteran Spencer Young, it still espoused the same cautionary tale. After serving fifteen thankless years in the 10th Cavalry, Young found his fortune in Mexico. See “Baltimore Minister Brother of General Villa, Mexican Leader,” Chicago Defender, 2 May 1914. Pancho Villa worked to cultivate a good image in the African American press. He sent an envoy to the Chicago Defender offices. One of Villa's top aides, General Felix Angeles, also told the Defender, “Our leading men in the army and in civil life are black men.” He criticized white Americans' “persistent efforts to force their ‘color prejudice’ notions” on their Mexican counterparts. See “Rupert Jonas Here Is Envoy of Villa,” Chicago Defender, 29 August 1914; “Color Line Mexico; Race Made Welcome,” Chicago Defender, 26 June 1915.

  114. “Defend the Flag,” Chicago Defender, 2 May 1914. The invasion was in response to increasing assaults on U.S. citizens and their property. Horne, Black and Brown, 144-45.

  115. See “Tenth Cavalry Are at Rest on the Border,” Chicago Defender, 23 May 1914; “Peace and Quiet Reign along the Border,” Chicago Defender, 4 July 1914; “Black Troops Ready for Mexico,” Chicago Defender, 25 April 1914; “Wearing the Uniform of Blue,” Chicago Defender, 9 May 1914; “Distinguishing Himself on Mexican Border,” New York Age, 30 April 1914.

  116. Ralph W. Tyler, “Why Fight for a Flag Whose Folds Do Not Protect,” Chicago Defender, 14 March 1914; “Border Service for Our ‘Boys,’” New York Age, 7 May 1914. On whether the war was just, see “Is the War with Mexico a Just One?” New York Age, 30 April 1914; “President Wilson with the Dead from Mexico,” New York Age, 21 May 1914.

  117. “South Carolina to Reenslave Colored People,” Chicago Defender, 31 January 1914.

  118. Horne, Black and Brown, 157. On the Plan de San Diego, see Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, “The Plan of San Diego and the Mexican-United States War Crisis of 1916: A Reexamination,” Hispanic American Historical Review 58, no. 3 (1978): 381-408; Benjamin Johnson, Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003). For a contemporary black press report, see “Doing Things in Texas,” Chicago Defender, 24 June 1916.

  119. Bolton Smith, “Notes on the Negro Problem,” June 1918, Box I, RG 107, Emmett Scott Papers, NARA, quoted in Horne, Black and Brown, 165.

  120. “George” to Lanier Winslow, U.S. State Department, no date, Reel 17, 832, “Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare and the Garvey Movement,” quoted in Horne, Black and Brown, 29.

  121. McGehee, “The Dandy and the Mauler,” 20-21.

  122. On the Fifi, see Luis Alvarez, The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 82-83.

  123. Hipolito Seijas, “Mas de dos mil personas,” El Universal, 27 March 1919.

  124. “Jack en Casa,” El Universal, 31 March 1919.

  125. McGehee, “The Dandy and the Mauler,” 23; “Capt. Roper Goes to Train with J. Johnson,” Chicago Defender, 31 May 1919.

  126. “Plaza de Toros ‘El Toreo,’” El Universal, 22 June 1919; “Johnson y Roper contenderán esta tarde en la Plaza ‘El Toreo,’” El Demócrata, 22 June 1919; “Sensacional torneo de box,” El Demócrata, 22 June 1919.

  127. “Jack Johnson Hangs One on Ropes in Ten Round Bout in Mexico,” New York News, [26 June?] 1919, Tuskegee Clippings File, Division of Behavioral Science Research, Carver Research Foundation, Reel 11, 107, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama (Sanford NC: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1981).

  128. “Mexico to Bar Jack Johnson from Fighting,” Atlanta Constitution, 11 March 1919; “Jack Johnson Riles Mexican Officials,” Washington Post, 9 July 1919; “Jack Johnson in Bad in Mexico City,” Atlanta Constitution, 9 July 1919; “Mexico to Deport Jack Johnson,” New York Times, 29 July 1919.

  129. “Jack Johnson Now Thrives as Medicine Man,” [Louisville News?], 17 April 1919, Reel 11, 101, Tuskegee Clippings File. Also see Glenn Griswold, “Make J. Johnson Hero in Mexico,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 16 April 1919; “Jack Johnson Rolling High,” Los Angeles Times, 2 July 1919.

  130. Johnson, In the Ring—And Out, 112.

  131. “La Nota social de ayer,” El Universal, 11 April 1919. Subsequent quotations are taken from this article unless otherwise noted.

  132. Division Superintendent, Department of Justice to Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief, Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC, “Negro Riot Propaganda and Activities of Jack Johnson at Mexico City,” 15 October 1919, RG 65, M1085, Reel 874, 5040, NARA.

  133. “Refused Johnson, License Revoked,” Chicago Defender, 12 July 1919.

  134. “Jack Johnson Gave Aid to Spain during War,” Chicago Defender, 19 April 1919. Also see “Jack Idolized in Mexico,” Chicago Defender, 10 May 1919.

  135. As the Defender noted, a correspondent for the New York Evening Sun provided a completely different version of the events. He claimed a scuffle had ensued after Moore called Johnson a “nigger.” Rather than siding with the black heavyweight, Mexico City officials had instructed local policemen not to charge Moore and members of the chamber since they were the city's guests of honor. Regardless of which version is accurate, the Defender effectively used Johnson's experiences in Mexico to critique the hypocrisy of Jim Crow segregation.

  136. A. A. Adee of the State Department to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, quoted in Finis Farr, Black Champion: The Life and Times of Jack Johnson (London: MacMillan & Company, 1964), 220.

  137. “Why Negroes Should Be Interested in Mexico,” Messenger, July 1919. Also see “Mexico,” Messenger, October 1919. This article discusses U.S. control over Mexican resources, particularly oil and copper.

  138. “Refused Johnson, License Revoked.”

  139. “Jack Johnson Forms Land Co,” Chicago Defender, 7 June 1919.

  140. Messenger, July 1919. For other Mexican colonization schemes, see “600 Miles by Wagon Is Negro's Answer to Crackers,” Negro World, [28?] February 1920, Reel 12, 280, Tuskegee Clippings File; “Mexico Open to Colored Emigrants,” Baltimore Afro-American, 24 September 1920.

  141. Captain W. Hanson, Texas Rangers to the Director of Military Intelligence, 15 October 1919, Reel 21, 284, Surveillance Papers, quoted in Horne, Black and Brown, 36.

  142. Division Superintendent, Department of Justice to Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief, Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC, “Negro Riot Propaganda and Activities of Jack Johnson at Mexico City,” 15 October 1919, RG 65, M1085, Reel 874, 5040, NARA.

  143. The San Antonio offices of the Bureau of Investigation advised that a study be conducted to “ascertain to what extent he [Johnson] is exciting the negroes of this country.” Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief, Bureau of Investigation, to A. Lanier Winslow, Department of State, Washington, DC, 24 October 1919, RG 65 M1085, Reel 874, 5040, NARA. To make matters worse, Johnson had also become a hero among white American leftists who had fled to Mexico to escape the draft. Michael Gold ran into Johnson in the streets of Mexico City, where Johnson had given him a $10 donation toward his cause. Johnson also knew Charles Shipman. See Horne, Black and Brown, 32.

  144. Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940; New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), 15, 39-40, 61-62.

  145. This reference is from RG 165, Name Index to Correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department General Staff, 1917-1941, M1194, Reel 109, NARA. Also see Division Superintendent, Department of Justice to Frank Burke, Assistant Director and Chief, Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC, “Negro Riot Propaganda and Activities of Jack Johnson at Mexico City,” 15 October 1919.

  146. Military intelligence re
ports on Johnson, 1919, RG 165, NARA, quoted in Roberts, Papa Jack, 212.

  147. Charles H. Boynton, Executive Director, National Association for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico to Mr. John Suter, Department of Justice, 7 November 1919, RG 65, M1085, Reel 874, NARA.

  148. Mr. John Suter, Department of Justice, to Charles H. Boynton, Executive Director, National Association for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico, 8 November 1919, RG 65, M1085, Reel 874, NARA.

  149. Horne, Black and Brown, 36.

  150. Johnson, In the Ring—And Out, 115-16.

  151. “Jack Johnson to Sail for America,” Chicago Defender, 14 February 1920; “Eastern Sporting World,” Chicago Defender, 6 March 1920; “Jack Johnson on Way to America,” Chicago Defender, 27 March 1920.

  152. Johnson, In the Ring—And Out, 121.

  153. “Jack Johnson to Be Citizen of Mexico,” Chicago Defender, 6 March 1920; “The Mexican Revolution,” Messenger, August 1920.

  CHAPTER 7. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

  1. “Seize Jack Johnson at Mexican Border,” New York Times, 21 July 1920.

  2. “Jack Johnson Is Jailed Here Despite Protest,” Los Angeles Times, 21 July 1920.

  3. Jack Johnson, In the Ring—And Out (1927; New York: Citadel Press, 1992), 256, 140.

  4. Noah D. Thompson, “Jack Johnson Returns from Exile,” Chicago Defender, 24 July 1920.

  5. Johnson, In the Ring—And Out, 122-23.

  6. Geoffrey Ward, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (New York: Knopf, 2004), 403-4.

  7. Quotations in this paragraph are from Frederic J. Frommer, “90 Years Ago Today, Boxer Johnson Sought His Own Pardon” (28 June 2011), http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=13945592 (accessed 1 September 2011). The records of Johnson's pardon request are held at the National Archives. Eventually released for good behavior, Johnson served only ten months of his original sentence.

  8. Frank O'Neill, “The Brown Man in the Field of Sports,” The Ring, November 1925.

  9. “Interesting Letters from Our Readers,” The Ring, December 1925.