Len Johnson and the British Colour Bar

**Citizen Koba** · 10-31-2021, 02:25 PM

Hmmm. Looks like I was late to the party, seems like they're gomnna make a movie about him.

https://www.***************.net/2021...r-len-johnson/

(world boxing news)

Award-winning playwright Winsome Pinnock is writing the screenplay, inspired by the book ‘Boxing’s Uncrowned Champion – Len Johnson and the Colour Bar’, written by Rob Howard.

Born and bred in Manchester, Len Johnson overcame extreme adversity to become one of the top middleweight boxers of the 1920s and 30s, winning a staggering 93 fights across his boxing career.

A local hero and respected by his fellow fighters, Johnson, who was mixed race, was cruelly denied his dream of ever becoming British Champion because of the government-backed ‘colour bar’, which stated that only fighters born of white parents could claim Championship status.

Johnson fought tirelessly against this injustice both inside the ring by beating all the champions of the day, and outside it through his relentless anti-racism campaigning against the British Boxing Board of Control.

By his side throughout his career was his white Irish wife Annie, whose tenacity, along with their deep love for one another, aided this courageous fight.

Len never received the recognition he truly deserved, but ultimately his determined activism led to the ‘colour bar’ being overturned and that forged the path for the success of all future black British boxing champions. Champion will tell a bittersweet yet uplifting story of triumph over tragedy.

Last year, a petition was launched to have Johnson commemorated with a statue in his home city of Manchester, a campaign supported by boxers Anthony Joshua and Ricky Hatton and the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.

Hughie Phillips, MindsEye co-founder and CEO says “We are delighted to be partnering up with Guy East and Winsome Pinnock to bring Len Johnson’s timely, and until now virtually unknown story to screen. Len Johnson was a man born ahead of his time, whose dignity and resilience saw him overcoming the odds in the most courageous of ways. Len leaves with us a victorious and crucial legacy, and one we cannot wait to share with audiences around the world, finally giving Len the recognition he deserves.”

MindsEye, an award-winning commercials production company which has been running since 2011, set up its Film and TV division in 2019, bringing in producer Katie Mavroleon (David Brent: Life on the Road), as Head of Development. Champion is one of a number of productions the company is progressing.

Champion is a MindsEye production, written by Winsome Pinnock, inspired by Rob Howard’s book ‘Boxing’s Uncrowned Champion – Len Johnson and the Colour Bar’. Executive Producer is Guy East, and the film is being produced by Hughie Phillips and Katie Mavroleon.

**Citizen Koba** · 10-31-2021, 02:29 PM

A longer article on Britians Colour Bar:

British Boxing’s Colour Bar, 1911-48

https://www.academia.edu/3190661/British_Boxing_s_Colour_Bar_1911_48

British Boxing’s Colour Bar, 1911-48

A kinda review of the book:

Len Johnson and the Colour Bar: Britain’s Uncrowned Champion

https://angelacobbinah.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/len-johnson-and-the-colour-bar-britains-uncrowned-champion/

In the 1920s he was one of Britain’s best known boxers following a string of victories both at home and abroad. Modest and affable, crowds would gather outside his Manchester home as he made his wa…

Len Johnson and the Colour Bar: Britain’s Uncrowned Champion

Posted on July 30, 2009 by adwoakorkoh Leave a comment

In the 1920s he was one of Britain’s best known boxers following a string of victories both at home and abroad. Modest and affable, crowds would gather outside his Manchester home as he made his way to his latest bout in an awaiting taxi. But middleweight master Len Johnson was to remain an uncrowned champion thanks to a ban on black fighters contesting title fights.

Backed by the government, the boxing regulatory board’s notorious rule 24 stipulated that boxers competing for the championship belt had to have two white parents – ruling out Johnson whose father was from West Africa.

As a result, his name does not appear in the official boxing hall of fame and he has all but faded from view.

‘He was basically ignored,’ says former amateur boxer Rob Howard, author of a just-published biography on Johnson.

‘I have read and re-read the record books and you can’t find any mention of him. If you do it is as usually as a footnote to someone else’s boxing career, often someone he defeated.’

The book Len Johnson and the Colour Bar: Britain’s Uncrowned Champion is an indictment of the boxing establishment’s dogged determination to keep black boxers from the reaching the top of the game, even forbidding them to fight in prestigious venues like the Albert Hall.
It is also a tribute to a brilliant boxer and local hero who, though bitterly disappointment by his treatment at the hands of the authorities, ended his days trying to fight social injustice and racism as a prominent member of the Manchester Communist Party.
‘Len Johnson was one of the truly legendary boxers and figures of his era,’ says Howard. ‘His achievements in the ring rate him with the very best of the British middleweights and if there is any justice, his name and reputation should never be forgotten.’
Len Benker Johnson was born in the working class Clayton area of Manchester in 1912, the eldest of four children. His mother Margaret hailed from Ireland and his father, Bill, was a seaman from Sierra Leone who had arrived in England in 1897 via Liverpool.
Although Johnson senior had fought professionally, his mild mannered son did not appear to share his enthusiasm for the sport and had limited success in small local competitions. When he was 19, during a strike at the iron foundry where he worked, he was persuaded to approach a fairground boxing booth in which members of the public were invited to fight resident fighters, a popular form of entertainment at the time. Sensing the shy young man’s talent, the owner decided to take him on as a member of his team.
Johnson’s fighting skills rapidly improved and when his ring career proper was launched a few months later he secured more victories than defeats and was being invited to fight in continental Europe.
In 1925, he hit the big time when he defeated Roland Todd, the reigning British middleweight champion, in a non-title bout on points, repeating the feat in a rematch.
Noted for his clever defensive skills, he steadily began to dominate the middleweight division with impressive victories over leading British and European middle and light heavyweights of the period.
These wins should have automatically earned him the right to a title contest, but the colour bar operated by the sport’s overseers, the National Sports Council and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), ruled this out.
Fed up with the attitude of boxing officialdom in Britain, Johnson spent six months in Australia in 1926, where he won the British Empire middleweight championship. But when he got back to England, he discovered that his title was not recognised by the boxing authorities, who awarded it to someone else.
Regarded by boxing fans as Britain’s uncrowned middleweight champion Johnson, by now married with three children, was showing the sort of form to contest the world title. But this cut no ice with the BBBC, which in 1929 officially sanctioned the colour bar as rule 24, paragraph 27 of its constitution.
Johnson was even barred from the fight game’s most prestigious venues, the Caf� Royal and the Royal Albert Hall in London, even though he could have easily filled both, such was his popularity.
Completely disillusioned, he told the Sporting Chronicle in 1931, ‘Where ever there is big money I am kept out of [these venues]. The prejudice against colour has prevented me from getting a championship fight. I feel therefore there is no use whatsoever going on with the business.’
‘Johnson was like a voice in the wilderness,’ remarks Howard, a retired secondary school teacher. ‘While promoters were happy to feature him in their shows because he was such a crowd puller, they were less keen to join his campaign against the colour bar, fearing retribution from the powerful boxing authorities.’
Johnson did eventually get to fight in the Albert Hall thanks to the efforts of a maverick promoter. That 1932 fight was a rematch against Cornishman Len Harvey, the prospective world title challenger, whom Johnson had defeated earlier. Much to the chagrin of the BBBC, it was headlined as the unofficial middleweight championship.

**Citizen Koba** · 10-31-2021, 02:30 PM

Manchester’s Black Champion

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/manchesters-black-champion

A colour bar introduced by Winston Churchill prevented Manchester boxer Len Johnson from becoming a champion – now a new campaign wants to recognise him with a statue in the city.

Manchester’s relationship with the slave trade is a matter of historic record, but its streets are not as littered with the names of its culprits in the way that cities such as Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London are. Streets named after large slave-owning families such as the Hibberts and the Beresfords exist, while a heated debate ensues over the future of the statue of Sir Robert Peel in city centre. But the city’s ‘enlightened’ ******* rulers focused on celebrating upper-class Radicals like Oliver Heywood, who betrayed his pro-slavery father to champion the abolitionist cause.

Close to Heywood’s statue on Albert Square is Lincoln Square, where a monument to the eponymous US president stands. Engraved on the side is his letter saluting the “workmen of Manchester” for their open support of anti-slavery forces in the American Civil War – and in defiance of their mainly pro-Confederate employers. The letter, which was written with an understanding of the material suffering Mancunian workers faced for the abolitionist cause, talks of the “ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom” that all peoples under bondage deserve.

But the city has few public monuments dedicated to its historic, large black community. A bust of the community activist and anti-gang violence campaigner Erinma Bell was placed in Manchester City Council in 2017. In the eighties, Town Hall could also count a sculpture of Nelson Mandela, crafted by the local Communist glassworker Sol Garson, until it was brought to Mandela’s estate in 2005 by struggle veteran Denis Goldberg.

As it stands, Manchester has more monuments dedicated to soft drinks than to its historic black community. Why not a statue of Len Johnson, a Manchester man, titan of the boxing world, and a pioneering civil rights leader?

Len was born in October 1902 in Clayton, to a Sierra Leonian sailor who had settled in Manchester after meeting Margaret, a proud Irish Mancunian. In his north Manchester childhood, Len was surrounded by the ***ish, Irish, Italian and Yemeni immigrants who made up much of Manchester’s working class at this time, but the prejudices against his mixed family ran deep – his mother was viciously assaulted and received lifelong scars on her face for having married a black man.

It was during a workplace fight that Len realised he had some skill, and his father put him up to a few boxing matches on the Ashton Old Road. He won his first two and lost the next two, but local boxing bosses were impressed, and offered him a full-time role in boxing.

From here, Len won as a middleweight against Eddie Pearson at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in January 1922, and started a professional career which spanned eleven years. Of the 127 fights he fought, he won 92, lost 29, and drew 6. His impressive scorecard brought him fame in Britain, and he beat European middleweight champion Roland Todd at Belle Vue in 1927. The following year, he beat the world-renowned Leone Jaccovacci, and in 1929, he got the better of European cruiserweight champion Michele Bonaglia.

However, at this time – despite Len being at the peak of his abilities – he was denied the chance to go for the British middleweight title. The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), which was the national authority of such matters, formally stated that he could not compete for this title because, simply, he was black.

Despite Britain’s rich history of black boxers, racist attitudes about the mental and physical dispositions of black people permeated the game; full-time British segregationist campaigners such as the evangelical preacher Frederick Brotherton Meyer argued that white athletes did not have the “animal development” of black people, and could therefore not compete with their “instinctive passion” for violence.

There were also worries over the consequences of emboldening Britain’s colonial subjects. For a nervous British establishment, there were far too many negative ramifications for their rule over the Empire if even an innocent sports tournament could even temporarily demonstrate the equality of black and white people. This is why in 1911, Home Secretary Winston Churchill banned interracial boxing matches, and the BBBC followed suit. The BBBC’s bar remained in place until the 1940s.

Manchester rose with anger for Len. Demonstrations were held across the city, and a protest delegation of boxers was sent to the BBBC’s London headquarters. But the situation demoralised him, and he retired from the profession in 1933, choosing instead to mentor young boxers.

Around this time, the world was changing, and Len began to get political. Fascism was on the rise in Manchester and abroad. In Spain, African-Americans were leading white Americans into battle for the first time as volunteers in the International Brigade, while many professional sportsmen from Manchester – such as the boxers Joe Norman and Bob Goodman, as well as the Belle Vue daredevil motorcyclist Clem Beckett – had gone to defend the ********ic Spanish government from Hitler and Mussolini’s might.

The bombs that fell over Madrid ended up falling over Manchester, and Len served in the Civil Defence Corps throughout World War Two. In 1944, at a time when respect for the Soviet Union’s sacrifice in the struggle against Hitler was sky-high, Len joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He was also a delegate to the Fifth Pan-African Congress, which was held besides All Saints Park in 1945, which attracted nearly ninety anti-colonial political activists, including future political leaders such as Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, Nigeria’s Jaja Wachuku, and Jamaica’s Dudley Thompson.

By 1946, Manchester’s black community had swelled to number around 10,000 people, as black ex-servicemen and migrant workers settled down in places like Moss Side. Len was wise to the discrimination they were facing and could potentially face, and so set up the New International Club on Grafton Street with his friends Syd Booth and Wilf Charles – two white working-class Mancunians who had fought against the *******s in Spain.

The New International attempted to channel what it called the “growing feeling of frustration” with substandard housing and jobs for black people in Manchester, and wanted to be both a social club and an organising space for black people to unite and solve their problems in Manchester. The principles of the Club were declared in its founding statement: “true internationalism; colonial liberation; the ending of racial discrimination; peace.”

The Club was one of the first places to hold African and Caribbean club nights in Manchester, and where young black and white workers could blend and meet each other. But it was also the bedrock of building connections between Manchester’s workers movement with black people all over the world, including organising solidarity with the Trenton Six, a group of black men sentenced to death by an all-white jury for a murder they didn’t commit.

But it held a power of its own here: in 1946, when a major shipping company in Manchester attempted to sack all of its black sailors, the Club’s membership of several hundred people held street meetings to appeal to white sailors, who stuck with their “coloured” colleagues and stopped the job losses. Similarly, after being tipped off, the Club’s leadership also helped cancel the policy of segregated queues in Manchester’s Labour Exchanges for unemployed black and white workers.

From his boxing days, Len had a loyal fan in the figure of the great Paul Robeson, who travelled over to perform at the Club in support of its solidarity efforts with African Americans. The concert became legendary for the spectacle of Robeson performing outside for the tens of thousands of Mancunians who couldn’t get a ticket for the sold-out Club event; and when Robeson’s passport was seized by the American authorities during McCarthyism, Len, Wilf and Syd were some of the leaders of the Let Robeson Sing Campaign. When he was finally allowed to travel again, Robeson penned a thank you letter to the Club for its support, assuring them that he would “never forget that it was the people of Manchester and of the other industrial areas of Britain who gave me the understanding of the oneness of people — a concept upon which I have based my career as an artist and citizen.”

Aside from being a well-respected community leader, Len stood as a council candidate several times. He wrote a monthly boxing column for the Daily Worker newspaper while working as a truck driver, where he penned pioneering essays on the welfare of retired athletes, the potential physical impairment that boxing causes, and the lack of sports facilities for working-class young people in Manchester.

When he died in September 1974, he died in relative anonymity in Britain, but was mourned internationally as a pioneer for equality in sports. He was also remembered as a stalwart in the local labour movement who had worked to improve race relations among the city’s working class.

However, a well-deserved renewal of interest in Len Johnson has taken place in the past few decades. A biography has been written about him, as has a play, and Labour MP Afzal Khan has encouraged the idea of a memorial to him.

The most positive aspect of the long-overdue toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol is the wave of honest discussion about the sordid past of Britain’s ruling class. But if this period can highlight the grotesque norms this country once considered acceptable, then it should also be a time for discussing and remembering those who came up against the system and fought it. For Manchester, there can be no better testament to that spirit of resistance than the figure of Len Johnson.

**Noelanthony** · 10-31-2021, 02:42 PM

Originally posted by Citizen Koba

Embarrassed to say I never even heard of this dude till I got a call off my mum about 30 minutes ago telling me about a Zoom webinar she'd had this afternoon where he was the topic of discussion.

Not only was he arguably one of the greatest ever fighters to come out of our city fighting from Welter right up to Heavyweight, despite the British Colour Bar which prevented him fighting for any official titles, dude was also a outspoken activist both within the labour movement as a member of the Communist party and as a tireless campaigner for the rights and freedoms of the black community in the UK. A true working class hero from a city with a rich history in class struggle that was at the very heart of the industrial revolution which changed the world forever.

Looks like the meeting was recorded so I'll link that in if I can whjen she sends the link across to me but in the meantime I dug some of this stuff up on the guy. Seruiously can't believe I've never heard of him before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Johnson_(boxer)

https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/17877

Len-Johnson.jpg

Len Johnson: The boxer with 93 wins who could never become British champion

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/54480882

Len Johnson beat the best Britain had to offer but was denied his place as national champion because of the colour of his skin.

(Doesn't say here that the Colour Bar in 2011 was backed by the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill who was concerned that allowing black boxers to succeed in Britian might undermine the power of colonial rule across the Empire)

Or a slightly more lightheated take below..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/con..._feature.shtml

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...r-bar-15859656

I never heard of him either. Thanks for the knowledge

**markusmod** · 11-01-2021, 01:02 AM

Some good stuff here.

**QueensburyRules** · 11-01-2021, 04:22 AM

Originally posted by Citizen Koba

Hmmm. Looks like I was late to the party, seems like they're gomnna make a movie about him.

https://www.***************.net/2021...r-len-johnson/

(world boxing news)

Award-winning playwright Winsome Pinnock is writing the screenplay, inspired by the book ‘Boxing’s Uncrowned Champion – Len Johnson and the Colour Bar’, written by Rob Howard.

Born and bred in Manchester, Len Johnson overcame extreme adversity to become one of the top middleweight boxers of the 1920s and 30s, winning a staggering 93 fights across his boxing career.

A local hero and respected by his fellow fighters, Johnson, who was mixed race, was cruelly denied his dream of ever becoming British Champion because of the government-backed ‘colour bar’, which stated that only fighters born of white parents could claim Championship status.

Johnson fought tirelessly against this injustice both inside the ring by beating all the champions of the day, and outside it through his relentless anti-racism campaigning against the British Boxing Board of Control.

By his side throughout his career was his white Irish wife Annie, whose tenacity, along with their deep love for one another, aided this courageous fight.

Len never received the recognition he truly deserved, but ultimately his determined activism led to the ‘colour bar’ being overturned and that forged the path for the success of all future black British boxing champions. Champion will tell a bittersweet yet uplifting story of triumph over tragedy.

Last year, a petition was launched to have Johnson commemorated with a statue in his home city of Manchester, a campaign supported by boxers Anthony Joshua and Ricky Hatton and the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.

Hughie Phillips, MindsEye co-founder and CEO says “We are delighted to be partnering up with Guy East and Winsome Pinnock to bring Len Johnson’s timely, and until now virtually unknown story to screen. Len Johnson was a man born ahead of his time, whose dignity and resilience saw him overcoming the odds in the most courageous of ways. Len leaves with us a victorious and crucial legacy, and one we cannot wait to share with audiences around the world, finally giving Len the recognition he deserves.”

MindsEye, an award-winning commercials production company which has been running since 2011, set up its Film and TV division in 2019, bringing in producer Katie Mavroleon (David Brent: Life on the Road), as Head of Development. Champion is one of a number of productions the company is progressing.

Champion is a MindsEye production, written by Winsome Pinnock, inspired by Rob Howard’s book ‘Boxing’s Uncrowned Champion – Len Johnson and the Colour Bar’. Executive Producer is Guy East, and the film is being produced by Hughie Phillips and Katie Mavroleon.

- -Boxing movies tend to be pathetic. The bio is more interesting and you still have it after you're finished unlike a movie..

**Citizen Koba** · 11-01-2021, 05:10 PM

Originally posted by QueensburyRules

- -Boxing movies tend to be pathetic. The bio is more interesting and you still have it after you're finished unlike a movie..

You ain't wrong, man. Downloaded the PDF already but I'm considering paying for an actual copy of the book.

What's sad is that prior to reading up on Len I actually knew more about the US color line and Jack Johnson than I did about the British Johnson from my own damn city and the Britsh Colour Bar... I kinda had the hazy notion that we'd had one at some point but never knew anything about it. What's more I kinda been around working class activism in the city my whole life more or less so it's hard to fathom I never heard of the guy in that context either, or maybe I did and never joined the dots with him being a boxer.

**billeau2** · 11-01-2021, 06:04 PM

Originally posted by Citizen Koba

Embarrassed to say I never even heard of this dude till I got a call off my mum about 30 minutes ago telling me about a Zoom webinar she'd had this afternoon where he was the topic of discussion.

Not only was he arguably one of the greatest ever fighters to come out of our city fighting from Welter right up to Heavyweight, despite the British Colour Bar which prevented him fighting for any official titles, dude was also a outspoken activist both within the labour movement as a member of the Communist party and as a tireless campaigner for the rights and freedoms of the black community in the UK. A true working class hero from a city with a rich history in class struggle that was at the very heart of the industrial revolution which changed the world forever.

Looks like the meeting was recorded so I'll link that in if I can whjen she sends the link across to me but in the meantime I dug some of this stuff up on the guy. Seruiously can't believe I've never heard of him before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Johnson_(boxer)

https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/17877

Len-Johnson.jpg

Len Johnson: The boxer with 93 wins who could never become British champion

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/54480882

Len Johnson beat the best Britain had to offer but was denied his place as national champion because of the colour of his skin.

(Doesn't say here that the Colour Bar in 1911 was backed by the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill who was concerned that allowing black boxers to succeed in Britian might undermine the power of colonial rule across the Empire)

Or a slightly more lightheated take below..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/con..._feature.shtml

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...r-bar-15859656

Great information... We had a guy here who used to be really informed about Australian fighters... I knew nothng of Darcey before he posted... This is a great contribution to the section.

**Willie Pep 229** · 11-06-2021, 12:05 PM

I am certainly not showing the correct interest this post was meant to generate but . . .

The Colour Bar v. The Color Line

There seems more than the typical different Brit-American word choice at play here . . . Maybe!

A bar is something that has to be reached for, and suggests the inferiority of people of color . . . Whereas a line is something you don't cross, thus denoting segregation but not necessarily inferiority.

Maybe just semantics but I have found that the British platitudes tend to be more straight forward, better descriptions, and therefore sometimes more honest. Whereas Americans sometimes build PC denials into their phrases trying to hide the real intent.

Len Johnson and the British Colour Bar