Unforgivable Blackness
Page 64
“even the Negroes don’t respect me”: NYT, September 12, 1912.
“My dear Mother”: Chicago Examiner, September 17, 1912.
“I was singing”: Bricktop and Haskins, Bricktop, p. 47.
“That woman has been troubled”: Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1912. “just to prevent her”: Ibid.
“Wabash Avenue was crowded”: Chicago Examiner, September 12, 1912.
“girl of gentle breeding”: New York World, September 12, 1912.
“While it cannot be said”: NYT, September 14, 1912.
“My daughter begged me”: Cleveland Gazette, September 21, 1912.
“Is there anyone in this church”: Chicago Defender, September 21, 1912.
“Many colored women”: Chicago Broad Ax, September 21, 1912.
“It’s over”: Ibid.
CHAPTER TEN: THE ACCUSED
“Before the tragedy”: Bricktop and Haskins, Bricktop, pp. 47–48.
“We were certainly glad”: Quoted in Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 283.
“Time will show”: Ibid.
“We know that no innocent young girl”: Quoted in Rosen, Lost Sisterhood, p.133. “a moral certainty”: Quoted in Langum, Crossing over the Line, p. 30.
“The white slave traffic”: Quoted in ibid., p. 43.
“for the purpose of prostitution”: Ibid., pp. 45–46.
“Electric pianos stopped”: Quoted in Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 299.
“under the influence”: Chicago Daily News, October 17, 1912.
“a chance to get it back”: Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1912.
“JACK” JOHNSON DEAF: Chicago Daily News, October 17, 1912.
“Get a warrant out for Johnson”: Ibid.
“I am doing this”: Ibid.
“I won’t shake hands”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, October 18, 1912.
“When Miss Cameron appeared”: Ibid.
“The undersigned and 100 others”: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 96.
“Suggest great care”: George W. Wickersham to James H. Wilkerson, October 19, 1912, DOJ File.
“clearing house for the procuring”: Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1912.
“[Miss Cameron] denies”: M.J. Lins report, October 21, 1912, DOJ File.
“care whether he was black or white”: Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1912.
“procuring girls for immoral purposes”: Agent B. J. Meyer Report, October 18, 1912, DOJ File.
“Public sentiment was aroused”: Agent B.J. Meyer, October 18, 1912, DOJ File.
“They can’t get me”: Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1912.
“strolled into the courthouse”: Chicago Daily News, October 18, 1912.
305 “I don’t think it is necessary”: Ibid.
“I’m going to marry Lucille”: Chicago DailyNews, October 19, 1912.
“Popular indignation”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 50.
“eliminated” [him] “as thoroughly”: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 98.
“Christian duty”: LAT, October 25, 1912.
JACK JOHNSON DANGEROUSLY ILL: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 146.
“all self-respecting black men”: Milwaukee Evening News, October 23, 1912.
“How silly!”: Nashville Globe, October 24, 1912.
“It is unfortunate”: Baltimore Afro American, October 25, 1912.
“I never got caught”: Chicago Tribune, October 24, 1912.
“Throw that lawyer out”: Ibid., October 21, 1912.
“I hope Johnson gets his block knocked off”: Washington Post, October 2, 1912.
“I will never have relations”: Ibid.
“brought burning shame”: Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1912.
“hold the race guilty”: Chicago Defender, October 26, 1912.
“Yes, I should like to do that”: Ibid.
“Tell all you know”: Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, October 22, 1912.
“It has been established”: Agent M.J. Lins Report, October 26, 1912, DOJ File.
“secure evidence”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p.148.
“He cried, whined like a baby”: Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1912.
“and that he’ll have a deuce of a time”: Ibid.
“There are plenty of white gentlemen”: Chicago Broad Ax, October 23, 1912.
“I’ll take my car”: Washington Post, October 30, 1912.
“send this nigger to jail”: “A Chicagoan” to United States District Attorney, Chicago, October 28, 1912, DOJ File.
“ex-post office safe-cracker”: Agent B. J. Meyer Report, October 26, 1912, DOJ File.
“BELLE BAKER, ALIAS BELLE GIFFORD”: M.J. Lins Report, November 4, 1912, DOJ File.
“in view of the fact”: M. J. Lins, November 4, 1912, DOJ File.
“peace and dignity”: Quoted in Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 153.
“I think you ought”: Chicago Tribune, November 8, 1912.
“You don’t have to do this”: Ibid.
“I knew the Schreiber girl”: Ibid.
“a brazen attempt”: Washington Post, November 9, 1912.
“tell the judge”: Ibid.
“I will not accept a cash bond”: Ibid.
“Please don’t, Jack”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 156.
“I’ll give $50”: Chicago Tribune, November 10, 1912.
“The only thing wrong”: Ibid.
“When I was in jail”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 156.
“That’s the Jack Johnson case”: Washington Post, November 14, 1912.
“the negro has been indicted”: Chicago Tribune, November 9, 1912.
“a regular prison”: Attachment to memo from William M. Offley to A. Bruce Bielaski, November 19, 1912, DOJ File.
“special medicine”: William M. Offley to A. Bruce Bielaski, November 21, 1912, DOJ File.
“All that she knows”: Raymond S. Horn to Belle Schreiber, December 2, 1912, DOJ File.
“ruined in the eyes of the world”: Jack Johnson, In the Ring and Out, p.83.
“her brave defender”: Tiny Johnson, grand jury deposition, 1914, DOJ File.
“They ought to refuse him”: Chicago Daily News, December 3, 1912.
“I had a long talk”: Chicago Daily News, December 4, 1912.
“I am so happy”: Chicago Tribune, December 4, 1912.
“Sometimes I say things”: Quoted in Farr,
“Black Hamlet of the Heavyweights.”
THE WEDDING CEREMONY: Chicago Defender, December 7, 1912.
“During the trip”: J. A. Poulin Report, December 14, 1912, DOJ File.
“Down in this part of the country”: Quoted in Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p.106.
“There is but one punishment”: Ibid., p. 107.
“That Johnson wedding”: Ibid., p.108.
“No brutality”: Ibid.
“black male”: NYT, December 24, 1912.
“We intend to make a clubhouse”: Chicago Tribune, December 24, 1912.
“Negro invasion”: NYT, December 25, 1912.
“In its original form”: Chicago Tribune, December 24, 1912.
“Jack is upstairs sleeping”: Charles DeWoody Report, January 14, 1913, DOJ File.
“If I had known”: Chicago Daily News, January 14, 1913.
“Personally, I have not the slightest doubt”: B. J. Meyer Report, January 14, 1913, DOJ File.
“The impudent air of Jack Johnson”: Milwaukee Free Press, January 15, 1913.
“But Mrs. Lucille Johnson”: M. J. Lins Report, February 25, 1913, DOJ File.
“advantage and interest”: Charles DeWoody Report, March 10, 1913, DOJ File.
“very feebly”: Ibid.
“The defendant left”: Ibid.
“The table was a dream”: Chicago Defender, April 6, 1913.
“I’ve got so many”: H. B. Coy report, April 22, 1913, DOJ File.
“unnatural and perverted practices”: Charles DeWoody to A. Bruce Bi
elaski, April 20, 1913, DOJ File.
“Don’t beat me any more”: Ibid.
“an effort to open the door”: Charles DeWoody Report, May 1, 1913, DOJ File. “PRINCIPAL WITNESS”: Charles DeWoody Report, May 5, 1913, DOJ File.
“If the attitude of the Grand Jury”: Ibid. p. 169.
“a fit of the blues”: Charles DeWoody, May 1, 1913, DOJ File.
“because they said”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 153.
“strongly prejudiced”: Quoted in Ibid., p. 170.
U.S. v. John Arthur Johnson court proceedings: My account, from the opening statements to the verdict, is drawn entirely from the trial transcript in the DOJ File.
“I have nothing to say”: Chicago Tribune, May 14, 1913.
“This verdict will go around the world”: Ibid.
encounter between Johnson and Schreiber at the depot: Noted by Agent M. L. Lins Report, May 14, 1913, DOJ.
“unquestionably the greatest”: Van Court, Making of Champions, p. 86.
“The crime of which this defendant stands convicted”: Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1913.
“Oh well”: Ibid.
“If Johnson had told me”: Chicago Examiner, January 24, 1913.
“I am not a coward, gentlemen”: Mirror of Life and Boxing World, July 19, 1913.
“It never happened”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 181.
“That j.p. never had a chance”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 176.
AM SAILING SUNDAY: Charles DeWoody Report, June 28, 1913, DOJ File.
“This may solve the whole problem”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p.177. “We’re the three musketeers!” Ibid., p.176.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE FUGITIVE
“I must complete my library”: NYT, July 18, 1913.
“prominent street corners”: London Times, August 27, 1913.
“Johnson’s engagements”: Ibid., July 22, 1913.
“a gay frock coat”: Ibid., August 25, 1913.
“Take anybody educated”: Ibid.
“As regards Johnson’s domestic affairs”: London Daily Express, August 26, 1913.
“Besides giving boxing exhibitions”: Chicago Defender, October 4, 1913.
“which is six times larger”: Ibid., December 15, 1913.
“notably Sam Langford”: LAT, November 6, 1913.
“A terrific hubbub”: London Times, December 20, 1913.
“I am delighted”: Chicago Examiner, January 22, 1914.
“absurd”: Ibid., January 24, 1914.
“got a dirty deal somewhere”: Ibid.
“Have one on Jack Johnson”: Undated deposition of M. Evalyn Knitzinger, DOJ File.
“I must say”: LAT, February 9, 1914.
“The tone which Jack Johnson has taken”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p.186.
“Permit me to inform the public”: Chicago Defender, March 14, 1914.
“Stop your kidding, Jack”: LAT, July 30, 1914.
“like a rajah”: Ibid.
“Basically, the Americans”: Washington Post, June 27, 1914.
“I-don’t-know-where”: Mirror of Life and Boxing World, September 27, 1913.
“If it is true”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 92.
MATCH JOHNSON-MORAN: Reproduced in John Bull, July 18, 1914.
“threw a greenish tint”: London Times, June 29, 1914.
“It might have been”: Dartnell, Seconds Out!, pp. 123–24.
“Everything O.K, Dan?”: LAT, July 30, 1914.
“Those are pretty wise guys”: Ibid.
“Come on! Come on!”: NYT, June 28, 1914.
“Hit him, Daddy!”: Ibid.
“How do you feel now”: London Daily Mail, June 29, 1914.
“My sincere congratulations”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 44.
361 “positively the poorest bout ever staged”: NYT, June 28, 1914.
“the finest fistic encounter”: Chicago Defender, July 4, 1914.
“I’m as bitter a man”: John Lardner, White Hopes, p. 44.
“They invoked the five-and-ten law”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 193.
“I met Jack Johnson”: Washington Post, August 26, 1914.
“the first time such a thing”: New York Age, August 13, 1914.
“The only thing left for me”: Washington Post, August 26, 1914.
“I’ve been told”: Curley, Memoirs, August 1931.
“Times were slack with me”: Ibid.
“an awful herd”: Phelon, “Where Boxing Stands Today.”
“God made me a giant”: Rex Lardner, Legendary Champions, p.188.
“I never liked [boxing]”: Ibid.
“I quit the big dog”: Quoted in John Lardner, White Hopes, p. 36.
“I never really knew how”: Rex Lardner, Legendary Champions, p.188.
“Jess, here’s something”: Quoted in John Lardner, White Hopes, p. 39.
“His behavior in the fight”: Ibid.
“just to show Tom Jones”: LAT, July 15, 1914.
“Jess, I want to put you into a ring”: Curley, Memoirs, August 1931.
“Come on up”: Ibid.
“[a] moment later”: Ibid.
“He frankly told me”: Ibid.
“Did he think”: Washington Post, August 12, 1927.
“about broke”: Agent L. C. Wheeler Report, February 17, 1915, DOJ File.
“that it has already been decided”: Hinton G. Clabaugh to A. Bruce Bielaski, February 19, 1915, DOJ File.
“It teaches by lighning”: Quoted in Lennigg,
“Myth and Fact.”
“uprising of outraged manhood”: Ibid.
“close to the sporting”: Ibid.
“I personally would”: A. Bruce Bielaski to Hinton G. Clabaugh, February 23, 1915, DOJ File.
SHIPS HERE REFUSED: Curley, Memoirs, August 1931.
“contest between Champion Johnson”: NYT, March 15, 1915.
“Why, Johnson, of course”: New York Herald, April 4, 1915.
“Jess Willard would restore”: LAT, March 6, 1915.
“witty remarks”: New York Herald, April 1, 1915.
“a triumphal entry”: Ibid.
“fat to the point of a paunch”: Ibid.
“I know that baby can’t lose”: Ibid., April 2, 1915.
“There is not enough money”: Ibid., April 3, 1915.
“I AM GETTING TIRED”: Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1915.
“Here’s your cute little friend”: Ibid., April 4, 1915.
“Hey señor”: Ibid.
“fistic frenzy”: Baltimore American, April 5, 1915.
“From the stands”: Ibid.
“Never in the history”: Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1915.
“There was a mad craning”: Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1915.
“I am absolutely confident”: Chicago Evening American, April 5, 1915.
“I can hit him”: Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1915.
“You got to do better”: Ibid.
“Johnson, you’ll get yours today”: Ibid.
“Jack, go take my wife away”: Washington Post, April 12, 1915.
“Johnson looked pitifully”: New York Herald, April 6, 1915.
“Oh my God”: Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1915.
“What’s the matter?”: Chicago Evening American, April 6, 1915.
“Something approaching a race riot”: Los Angeles Examiner, April 6, 1915.
“Now all my troubles will be over”: Ibid.
“youth and condition”: Washington Post, April 6, 1915.
“At one point”: NYT, April 6, 1915.
“Pretty blue”: Washington Post, April 6, 1915.
“It can’t be true”: NYT, April 7, 1915.
“Every white man”: Ibid., April 6, 1915.
“Johnson fought a great fight”: Quoted in
Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 140.
“For some years past”: Chicago Broad Ax, Quoted in ibid.
“extr
avagant reveler”: Al-Tony Gilmore, Bad Nigger!, p. 141.
“connubial connections”: Ibid.
“The Ethiopian has been eliminated”: Detroit News, April 18, 1915.
“It is a point of pride”: Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1915.
“I wish I was going back”: Washington Post, April 8, 1915.
382 “the saddest thing I ever saw”: Ibid., April 12, 1915.
“If he had saved the country”: LAT, April 8, 1915.
“Not a station”: Baltimore American, April 9, 1915.
“men, women and children”: Curley, Memoirs, October 1931.
“Alas, poor Johnson”: LAT, May 14, 1915.
“Man, for me war is over”: NYT, May 15, 1915.
“Wasn’t I in history”: Ibid.
“ ‘Oh hell’”: Washington Post, August 12, 1927.
“It was very irregular”: Ibid.
“He replied”: Johnson, In the Ring and Out, pp. 200–1.
“BLACK MAIL PROPOSITION”: Washington Post, July 23, 1915.
“became a favorite target”: Jack Johnson, Inside the Ring and Out, p. 145.
“Between blasts of bombs”: Ibid.
“Let me help you, Johnson”: Farr, Black Champion, p. 210.
“[Cravan] contented himself”: Quoted in Randy Roberts, Papa Jack, p. 207.
JACK JOHNSON CAPTURED: Milwaukee Free Press, April 22, 1916.
“ancient ways of doing business”: Johnson, In the Ring and Out, p.105.
“One of those bloody pressmen”: Anonymous, “Arthur Cravan vs Jack Johnson.”
“numerous risks”: Johnson, In the Ring and Out, p.109.
“For a brief time”: Washington Post, March 19, 1918.
“very anxious”: Frank S. Armand to Emmett J. Scott, June 29, 1918, Record Group 165, National Archives.
“I am as good an American”: Pittsburgh Courier, June 14, 1918.
“do anything”: Unsigned letter to Emmett J. Scott, August 20, 1918, Group 165 National Archives.
“the Hotel Regina”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 217.
“down-and-outs, cheap gamblers”: Major John W. Lang to Director, Military Intelligence Division, December 9, 1918, Group 165, National Archives.
“Report, hell”: Ibid., January 18, 1919.
“I found [him] a man”: Washington Post, April 12, 1915.
“If Johnson throwed that fight”: Quoted in Farr, Black Champion, p. 206.
“a constant companion”: Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1919.