FamilyEducation.com
E-Mail this pageSign-up for Newsletters

Parenting Newsletters. Great tips for your inbox.

Do You Know These African-American Pioneers?

slide 1

Jack Johnson (1878-1946)

Jack Johnson was the first black boxer to be world heavyweight boxing champion. A dominating fighter, Johnson held the title for seven years, even as he was the target of persistent, unrelenting racism, which often found its form in boxing promoters' search for a "great white hope" to dethrone him. Johnson has recently garnered renewed attention thanks to Ken Burns's 2005 documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, based on the book by Geoffrey C. Ward.