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After the incidents that took place in Charlottesville over the weekend I started wondering.
In 1910, Jack Johnson, the 1st Black Heavyweight Champion of the World, defeated James Jeffries. The fight was dubbed "The Fight of the Century" and since Johnson was black and Jeffries white, the fight took on facial undertones. Johnson stopped Jeffries in the 15th round. What followed was de****able, deplorable, grotesque behavior.
- In New Orleans, a black man who shouted "Hurrah for Johnson" was severely beaten by whites before police came to his rescue
- In Houston, a black man named Charles Williams had his throat slashed ear to ear by a white man for cheering for Johnson on a streetcar
- A mob of 200 whites chased blacks off the sidewalks in Washington.
- In Cincinnati, several hundred whites ran after a black who made a comment they found offensive.
- In Clarksburg, West ******ia, whites were so angry at the triumphant shouting of blacks that they formed a 1,000-man posse to chase all blacks off the streets, including one who was led about with a rope around his neck.
- In Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood, a mob set fire to a black tenement, while blocking the doorway to prevent the occupants’ escape
- Overall, there were riots in about 50 cities but the total death/injury numbers is hard to estimate
In 1910, Jack Johnson, the 1st Black Heavyweight Champion of the World, defeated James Jeffries. The fight was dubbed "The Fight of the Century" and since Johnson was black and Jeffries white, the fight took on facial undertones. Johnson stopped Jeffries in the 15th round. What followed was de****able, deplorable, grotesque behavior.
- In New Orleans, a black man who shouted "Hurrah for Johnson" was severely beaten by whites before police came to his rescue
- In Houston, a black man named Charles Williams had his throat slashed ear to ear by a white man for cheering for Johnson on a streetcar
- A mob of 200 whites chased blacks off the sidewalks in Washington.
- In Cincinnati, several hundred whites ran after a black who made a comment they found offensive.
- In Clarksburg, West ******ia, whites were so angry at the triumphant shouting of blacks that they formed a 1,000-man posse to chase all blacks off the streets, including one who was led about with a rope around his neck.
- In Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood, a mob set fire to a black tenement, while blocking the doorway to prevent the occupants’ escape
- Overall, there were riots in about 50 cities but the total death/injury numbers is hard to estimate
Johnson aroused fierce animosity. Known for speeding in expensive cars, frequenting ******** rooms, and worst of all, coupling with white women, he was exactly the kind of figure the irascible white faction of society couldn’t tolerate. They wanted to see him served his comeuppance. They wanted his symbolic defeat, as one put it, “to show the millions of people of the white race in all quarters of the world that there is one Caucasian who is the physical superior of the greatest fighter the black race has ever produced.”
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