Unforgivable Blackness
Page 63
“I am no Sam Fitzpatrick”: LAT, June 18, 1910.
“showing his pistol to everybody”: Jack Johnson, “Mes Premiers Combats.”
“I have wagered large amounts”: Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1910.
“You must have talent”: Chicago Tribune, June 25, 1910.
“Go to San Francisco”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p.81.
“prayerproof”: Chicago Tribune, June 23, 1910.
“Just tell me, man to man”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 90.
“the precise magnetic center”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“I am glad I’m here”: London, Stories of Boxing.
“In a single day”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“was more or less of an ovation”: Chicago Tribune, June 23, 1910.
“One glance at Jack’s beaming face”: Milwaukee Free Press, June 25, 1910.
“At Jeffries’ quarters”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“There was nothing winsome”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“I’ll turn the fire hose on him”: Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 101.
“I don’t want you here”: Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1910.
“You find yourself in a honky-tonk”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“I saw that which I never expected”: Ibid.
“He has an eye for what goes on”: New York World, June 27, 1910.
“I have never seen a man”: Quoted in Lucas, Black Gladiator, p. 97.
“Cap’n John, if I felt any better”: Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1910.
“To all appearances”: Baltimore American, July 2, 1910.
“The man is a puzzle”: Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1910.
“essentially African”: San Francisco Examiner, July 3, 1910.
“dogged courage”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“An army of unknowns”: Beach, JeffriesJohnson Fight.
“People eat at ragtime”: Lyon, “In Reno Riotous.”
“There are few negro families”: Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1910.
“I told Johnson in Chicago”: Los Angeles Examiner, July 3, 1910.
“if a hand was not dipped into your pocket”: Lyon, “In Reno Riotous.”
“beat down the wonderful black”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, “Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson.”
“Thousands of negroes”: Afro-American Ledger, April 30, 1910.
HE WILL HAVE TO BEAT THEM ALL: Chicago Defender, February 5, 1910.
“On the arid plains”: Ibid., June 16, 1910.
“If Jeff is only half as good”: Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1910.
“doesn’t have a look-in”: Ibid., June 25, 1910.
“I realize full well”: Baltimore American, July 4, 1910.
“Johnson will win”: NYT, July 3, 1910.
“For God’s sake, Jim”: San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 1910.
DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME: Ibid. BET YOUR LAST COPPER ON ME: Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1910.
“Everything that had wheels”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“I would consider any move”: Milwaukee Free Press, July 4, 1910.
“The fresh pine arena”: Lyon, “In Reno Riotous.”
“The betting was now 10 to 6”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“Hats waved, flags fluttered”: Beach, JeffriesJohnson Fight.
“the only free State”: Ibid.
“By all odds”: Los Angeles Examiner, July 5, 1910.
“the last roll-call of has-beens”: Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1910.
“Oh hell, pull the fight”: Ibid.
“nervous prostration”: Boxing, July 9, 1910.
“Cold feet, Johnson”: New York American, July 5, 1910.
“Don’t talk to them”: Ibid.
“amazed at the number”: Jack Johnson, “A Champ Recalls.”
“the first blood cry”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“I have never seen a human being”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“The man of summer temperament”: London, Stories of Boxing.
“Mr. Jeffries feinted a bit”: Jack Johnson, “Johnson’s Story of His Victory.”
“Cut out the motion pictures”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“I was feeling quite fresh”: Jack Johnson, “Johnson’s Story of His Victory.”
“the good sense”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“He wants to fight a little”: Fields, James J. Corbett, p. 67.
“All right Jim”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“Come on now, Mr. Jeff”: Ibid.
“He’ll kill you, Jack”: Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1910.
“First blood for Jeff!”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“Where do you want me to put him”: Fields, James J. Corbett, p. 167.
“Jeffries took a left hook”: New York American, July 5, 1910.
“My eyes could detect openings”: Ibid.
“Jack, your brother’s whipped”: Boxing, August 13, 1913.
“I’ll straighten him up”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“Ain’t I got a hard old head?”: Ibid.
“Keep it up, Jack!”: New York American, July 5, 1910.
“I didn’t show you that one”: Boxing, July 9, 1910.
“wind was going fast”: Jack Johnson, “Johnson’s Story of His Victory.”
“Thought you said you were going to make me wild”: Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1910.
“How you like ’em, Jim?”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“Why don’t you do something?”: New York American, July 5, 1910.
“A great silence fell”: Ruhl, “Fight in the Desert.”
“Don’t let the nigger knock him out!” London, Stories of Boxing, p. 173. (London used a more polite term; I’ve restored the one ringsiders surely used.)
“I couldn’t come back, boys”: London Daily Telegraph, July 5, 1910.
“I could have fought”: NYT, July 5, 1910.
“I could never have whipped Jack Johnson”: Quoted in Farr, “Black Hamlet of the Heavy-weights.”
“Please show me the way out”: Beach, Jeffries-Johnson Fight.
“She did not show many outward signs”: Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1910.
“It’s their night”: Ibid.
“Say, sonny, who won the fight?”: Denver Post, July 5, 1910.
“There was no reason”: Belle Schreiber testimony, April 1913, DOJ File.
“I had seen pool tables”: Bradford, Born with the Blues, p. 171.
“The Negroes were jubilant”: Ruby Berkley Goodwin, It’s Good to Be Black, pp. 78–79.
“’Cause I wants everybody to know”: Story by A. B. Simpson, unsourced clipping, July 5, 1910, Nevada Historical Society.
“Howdy-do, Tommy”: Ibid.
“Same as yesterday”: San Francisco Examiner, July 5, 1910.
“The black man, were he of white skin”: Chicago American, July 5, 1910, ibid.
“A word to the Black Man”: Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1910.
“Rioting broke out”: New York Tribune, July 5, 1910.
“Jack Johnson has knocked out”: Armstrong, Satchmo, p. 36.
“clubbed them unmercifully”: Milwaukee Free Press, July 6, 1910.
“It was a good deal better”: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 71.
“His black tilted brow”: Milwaukee Free Press, July 7, 1910.
“Don’t talk to white strangers”: Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1910.
“Now watch close there, honey”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, pp. 122–23.
“Even a reporter for the Daily News”: Chicago Daily News, July 7, 1910.
“Oh, Jackie”: Ibid.
“There’s plenty more”: Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1910.
“an old-timer who taught Johnson”: Los Angeles Examiner, July 8, 1910.
“I never will be broke”: Ibid.
“Not alone has Jack Johnson”: Ibid.
“I only hope the colored people”: Ibid.
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE B
RUNETTE IN A BLOND TOWN
“the highest esteem for the Negro”: Major P. M. Ashburn to Emmett Jay Scott, July 5, 1910, Booker T. Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
“I was not myself”: NYT, September 15, 1912.
“I have never seen”: New York Age, July 7, 1910.
TO EVERY COLORED MAN: Farr, Black Champion, p.131.
“The Victoria was jammed”: Washington Post, July 10, 1910.
“Nat, why should they bring in”: Fleischer, 50 Years at Ringside, pp. 76–77.
“According to her story”: New York Age, July 28, 1910 (reprinted from New York Morning Telegraph).
“prevarication”: Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1910.
“I’ll see him”: Milwaukee Free Press, July 13, 1910.
“That’s where he got me good”: Chicago Tribune, July 14, 1910.
RACE RIOTS AND MURDER: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 76.
“members of their own race”: Quoted in Streible, Fight Films, p. 365.
“Labor on the cotton plantations”: Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1910.
“The negroes are to some extent”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p.112.
“Had Jeffries won”: Quoted in Streible, Fight Films, p. 359.
“What folly!”: Washington Bee, July 9, 1910. “Ladies and gentlemen”: Tim Brooks Collection, transcribed by Brooks.
“Orally, Mr. Johnson”: Quoted in Brooks, Lost Sounds, p. 245.
“The worst of it is”: Police Gazette, November 5, 1910.
“Jack Johnson, we have waited”: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 48.
“Amaze an Grace”: Ibid.
WHITE GENTLEMAN RAPES COLORED GIRL: Quoted in Ottley, Lonely Warrior, p. 106.
“Why not arrest the man”: Ibid., p.110.
“Fully expecting to see a colored girl”: Federal Agent Carbarino report, March 24, 1913, DOJ File.
“on the stage and about the dressing rooms”: Sworn statement by Prince Hunley, February 21, 1913, DOJ File.
“One of Jack’s retainers”: Montreal Daily Herald, September 19, 1910.
“I have the car”: Boxing, September 3, 1910.
“Men were white-faced”: Quoted in Old-field, “Wide Open All the Way.”
“He’s a devil”: Nolan, Barney Oldfield, p.88.
“I’ve done more fighting”: Ibid., p. 47.
“I’d rather be dead”: Oldfield, “Wide Open All the Way.”
“the snub he richly deserves”: Milwaukee Herald, October 10, 1910.
“It is impossible to withhold”: Boxing, September 3, 1910.
“I return herewith the $1”: NYT, October 12, 1910.
“Barney Oldfield is bigger”: New York Herald, October 11, 1910.
“I am going to win”: Ehrman, “White Hope.”
“Mr. Oldfield, which heat”: Bill Corum column, unsourced newspaper clipping.
“A sorrier lot of spectators”: NYT, October 26, 1910.
“conduct injurious to the welfare”: Nolan, Barney Oldfield, p. 110.
“I raced Jack Johnson”: Police Gazette, November 5, 1910.
“No more of that automobile racing”: NYT, October 26, 1910.
“Jack Johnson just had to keep on”: Indianapolis Freeman, November 1, 1910.
“convinced me that I was not meant”: Jack Johnson, In the Ring and Out, p. 152. “He said to me to get my furniture”: Belle Schreiber testimony, April, 1913 DOJ File.
“I don’t think [a man] could make a mistake”: Bertha Morrison testimony April, 1913, DOJ File.
“Sisters and brothers”: Montreal Daily Herald, November 8, 1910.
“I couldn’t seem to understand”: Washington Post, November 18, 1910.
“as something told me”: Ibid.
“I’m all right”: NYT, November 18, 1910.
“aggravated nerve exhaustion”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p.120.
“to the astonishment of the natives”: NYT, November 18, 1910.
JOHNSON SUFFERS FROM SERVILE FLATTERY: Milwaukee Free Press, November 20, 1910.
“a white woman”: NYT, November 26, 1910.
“The only thing that worries me”: Police Gazette, December 24, 1910.
“hostile to the colored race”: NYT, December 21, 1910.
“hysterical condition”: Chicago Tribune, December 26, 1910.
“a disagreement … a fight”: Roy Jones testimony, April 1913, DOJ File.
SNORT OF SQUIRREL WHISKEY: Milwaukee Free Press, December 25, 1910.
“wipe out the whole goddamned Johnson family”: Washington Post, December 28, 1910.
“Sure he does”: Ibid.
“a misunderstanding”: Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1910.
“I never slept with a nigger”: NYT, January 3, 1911.
“She must have known”: New York World, September 13, 1912.
“I don’t understand McIntosh”: Chicago American, March 25, 1911.
“compelled to see Jack Johnson”: Agent Charles L. Sterling report, March 5, 1913, DOJ File.
“All right, white man”: NYT, March 25, 1911.
“If you beat that nigger”: LAT, April 2, 1911.
“the big, black swaggering bully”: Police Gazette, April 15, 1911.
“You all get away”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, April 20, 1911.
“Pinched again”: NYT, May 16, 1911.
“In the heat of the search”: John Lardner, White Hopes, p. 27.
“there was nothing uncovered”: NYT, May 27, 1911.
“Nobody wants to see me win”: Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1911.
CHAPTER NINE: THE BLACK MAN GARBED IN BLACK
“There was consternation”: NYT, June 7, 1911.
“Mrs. Johnson was not visible”: Washington Post, June 8, 1911.
“the delicate question”: NYT, June 7, 1911.
“I always dress port and starboard”: Milwaukee Free Press, June 6, 1911.
“No race prejudice came”: NYT, June 10, 1911.
“I wish we’d seen more of him”: Ibid.
“Messrs Hamilton, the well-known jewelers”: Boxing, June 24, 1911.
“crowds of women”: Wignall, Story of Boxing, p. 257.
“a big slate-coloured mass”: Boxing, June 24, 1911.
“It got me, it was so grand”: Washington Post, June 23, 1911.
“The fighters saw each other”: NYT, June 25, 1911.
“polish off all the white trash”: Police Gazette, May, 1911.
“to break [in] Johnson lightly”: London Times, August 7, 1911.
“Fight for America?”: Ibid.
“lively conduct”: Milwaukee Free Press, October 24, 1911.
“great nervous prostration”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, August 29, 1911. “Before she left for Paris”: Ibid., October 25, 1912.
“as handsome as a Congolese Apollo”: Boxeurs, September 14, 1911.
“watchfulness”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, September 14, 1911.
“gratify that craving”: London Times, September 16, 1911.
“a white soldier”: Quoted in Mews, “Puritanicalism, Sport and Race.”
“white and black will be pitted against each other”: London Times, September 19, 1911.
“When white opposes black”: Mews, “Puritanicalism, Sport and Race.”
“We have hitherto”: London Daily Mail, September 23, 1911.
“I have made up my mind”: Mews, “Puritanicalism, Sport and Race.”
“Come right in”: London Times, September 26, 1911.
“From the moment when Jack Johnson”: London Daily Mail, September 28, 1911.
“Does this appear”: Boxing, November 18, 1911.
“And so you’re coming home”: Chicago Tribune, December 22, 1911.
“The American won”: Curley, Memoirs, June 1931.
“Nowadays every manager”: Phelon, “Fitzsimmons and the White Hopes.”
“I’m going to quit this job”: Quoted in Lardner, White Hopes, p. 26.
> “A WHITE HOPE IN THE MAKING”: Ibid. p. 26.
“the bloodiest fight ever seen”: LAT, September 16, 1911.
“I immediately launched a boom for Flynn”: Curley, Memoirs, July 1931.
“What a friend!”: Ibid.
“Come right out to my house”: Ibid.
“I begged her to stay with me”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, October 25, 1912.
“one of the popular society girls”: Washington Post, February 11, 1912.
“Who she was before”: New York Herald Tribune, February 10, 1912.
“Just did it because I don’t like him”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, March 6, 1912.
“I guess that’s discrimination”: NYT, January 12, 1912.
“Las Vegas will be the cynosure”: Quoted in Kammer, “TKO in Las Vegas.”
“to hold on”: Wilson, “Another White Hope.”
280 “where I can see people”: Albuquerque Morning Journal, May 28, 1912.
“He may be seen”: Quoted in Wilson, “Another White Hope.”
“Time and again”: Unsourced clipping signed
“An Old Fan,” Jim Johnston Collection.
“Wait a minute!”: NYT, July 5, 1912.
“The nigger’s holding me”: Quoted in Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 135.
“Flynn’s feet were both off the floor”: NYT, July 5, 1912.
“like a billy goat”: Milwaukee Free Press, July 5, 1912.
“full of fight and ginger”: San Francisco Examiner, July 5, 1912.
“I’ve got sense enough”: Chicago Daily News, July 11, 1912.
“No sir, this pitcher is through”: Ibid.
“the coal bin of the wise purchaser”: Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1912.
“a miniature frying pan”: Chicago Defender, July 13, 1912.
“three drink-dispensing parlors”: Chicago Examiner, July 12, 1912.
“in my cabaret”: Jack Johnson, In the Ring and Out, p. 68.
“Owing to the audience”: Chicago Examiner, July 12, 1912.
“Although many of the daily”: Chicago Defender, July 13, 1912.
“surrounded as always by friends”: Bricktop and Haskins, Bricktop, pp. 42–48.
“I made it seven in twelve hours”: Quoted in Stump, “Rowdy Reign.”
“She was a good-looking”: Bricktop and Haskins, Bricktop, p.47.
“The pugilist regarded the proceedings”: Chicago Examiner, July 12, 1912.
“I am going to get fixed for life now”: Ibid., January 24, 1914.
“The Café de Champion, both on the main and second floors”: Chicago Defender, September 22, 1912.(Covers events of September 8, before Etta Johnson’s suicide.)