Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow Author(s): DEREK H. ALDERMAN, JOSHUA INWOOD and JAMES A. TYNER Source: Southeastern Geographer , Vol. 58, No. 3 (Fall 2018), pp. 227-249 Published by: University of North Carolina Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26510077

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This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow Race, Reputation, and the Politics of Black Villainy: The Fight of the Century

Derek H. Alderman University of Tennessee Joshua Inwood Pennsylvania State University James A. Tyner Kent State University

Foundational to Jim Crow era segregation and Fundacional a la segregación Jim Crow y a discrimination in the United States was a “ra- la discriminación en los EE.UU. era una “política cialized reputational politics,” that constructed reputacional racializada,” que no solo construyó African Americans as not only inferior, but as vil- a los afroamericanos como inferiores sino tam- lainous threats to the normative order, leading to bién como amenazas villanías al status quo, algo the lynching of thousands of African Americans. que contribuyó a los linchamientos de miles de While black villainy is a destructive force within afroamericanos. Mientras que la villanía es una society, we explore it is as basis for anti-racist pol- fuerza destructiva dentro de la sociedad, en el pre- itics, when appropriated by African Amer­ icans. sente artículo lo exploramos como posible fuente There is a long history in African American folk- de una política anti-racista, cuando se apropia lore of celebrating the black outlaw who freely por los afroamericanos. Hay una larga historia moves about and boldly violates moral and legal en el folklórico afroamericano de celebrar el pro- norms. Early 20th century American boxer Jack scrito afroamericano quien se mueve libremente Johnson, who reigned as world heavy champion y quien rompe las normas morales y legales. El from 1908 to 1915, illustrates this complex and boxeador americano Jack Johnson del sigo XX, contested process of vilifying black bodies and quien dominó como campeón mundial del boxeo reputations during the Jim Crow era. Our paper pesado del 1908 al 1915, ilustra este contestado offers a critical, contextualized biographical y complejo proceso de vilificar el cuerpo negro y analysis of Johnson, situating his struggles within las reputaciones de la era del Jim Crow. Nuestro the wider historical geography of violent US race artículo ofrece un análisis biográfica crítica con- relations and paying close attention to the contro- textualizada de Johnson, situando su desempeño versial place he held within the white and black dentro de la geografía histórica de las relaciones public imaginaries. Importantly, the African raciales violentas de los EE.UU. y prestando at- American fighter appropriated and manipulated ención al lugar controversial que tuvo dentro del Jim Crow villainy to challenge a white racist soci- imaginario público de los blancos y los negros. ety and a conservative black establishment while El luchador afroamericano apropió y manipuló also claiming the right to live on his own terms. la villanía de la era Jim Crow para desafiar una

southeastern geographer, 58(3) 2018: pp. 227–249

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 228 alderman et al. sociedad racista blanca y un establecimiento con- being written about Jeffries, Johnson and servador negro mientras reclamaba el derecho de the ways this fight was a proxy for larger vivir de sus propios términos. questions about race and white supremacy in the United States (Johnson 1927). keywords: Boxing, critical race theory, The Johnson versus Jeffries bout, billed Jack Johnson, reputational politics, sports at the time and still remembered today by geography many boxing aficionados as “the Fight of palabras claves: Boxeo, teoría crítica de the Century,” was broadcast by the new la raza, Jack Johnson, política reputacional, “wire services” throughout the United geografía deportiva States in what was perhaps the first nation- ally broadcast sporting event in Amer­ ica. Given the buildup and the racialized poli- introduction tics that surrounded the fight, the air was In searing desert heat on 4 July 1910 in electric, as Johnson appeared to toy with Reno, Nevada, Jack Johnson retained his Jeffries, ultimately knocking him out of the title as world heavyweight boxing cham- fight in the 14th round Johnson­( 1927). pion. The first African American to ever win Johnson’s victory touched off a spate the heavyweight championship, ­Johnson of riots throughout the United States as pummeled and humiliated Jim ­Jeffries, whites, angered at the outcome, took out touted at the time as “the Great White their frustrations on ­African ­Americans Hope”, who had come out of retirement in communities large and small (Hie­ tala specifically for the purpose of winning the 2002). At the same time, segments of title back from Johnson (­Hietala 2002). the black community were emboldened Ever since Johnson had won the world by the fact that an African ­American held heavyweight title from Tommy Burns in the world boxing championship and the Sydney, Australia, in 1908 white people ­defiant ayw in which Johnson visibly trans- the world over had searched for a white gressed and arrogantly mocked the conven- fighter who could best Jack Johnson in the tions of white supremacist ­America. In the ring (Kent 2005). The search for “the Great words of noted historian John Blassing­ ame White Hope” had landed at the feet of Jim (1975, p. 5): “Privately and publicly many Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion blacks applauded ­Johnson’s exploits be- and farmer from ­California, who many at cause he defied all of the degrading cus- the time considered the greatest fighter in toms of ­America. He was rich when most the history of boxing. Initially reluctant to blacks were poor; free to do as he chose enter the ring, it was only after the famous when most blacks were circumscribed; author Jack ­London, and other commenta- and braggadocious [sic] when many blacks tors had begged Jef­ fries out of retirement were forced to bear their oppression in si- that he decided to fight Johnson for the lence” for fear of violent reprisals. title (Kent 2005). The buildup to the fight To understand the significance of the was immense with hundreds of reporters fight it is important to note that the box- from around the world in 110° F temper- ing ring of the late 19th and early 20th atures covering the weeklong festivities centuries was, in many respects, a micro- leading up to the fight and scores of stories cosm of US society. Championship fights

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 229 were, for the most part, all-white affairs Johnson’s lopsided victory over ­Jeffries and the segregated boxing ring mirrored shattered the myths of black deference ­America’s preoccupation with keeping and inferiority. Johnson tortured his African ­Americans “in their place” and on ­­opponents—especially Jeffries and Burns— the outside of the US racial hierarchy. Jack publically marking and mocking them, and ­Johnson, for many whites, was the embod- finally vanquishing them. ­Johnson would i ment of the new-found threats that perme- rule the heavyweight division for seven ated the US in the years after the end of the years, until 1915, when he lost the title to Civil War. As African Americans struggled Jess Willard—another fighter billed as a to establish themselves after the end of “the Great White Hope”—by way of slavery and as whites increasingly under- knockout in round 25 of a 45 round bout. mined the civil rights gains of black peo- ­Bederman (1995, p. 42) contends that by ple, the nation was entering the Jim Crow annihilating Jeffries and so many others be- era of extended racial crisis. The intensely fore Willard, Johnson implicitly challenged racist American society within which Jack the ways hegemonic ­discourses of civiliza- ­Johnson fought his opponents—which tion built powerful notions of manhood out included “Great White Hopes” such as of race. Johnson’s victory symbolized the Jeffries as well as the wider hostile white potential of black Americans to resist racial community outside the ring—was not oppression and, perhaps, to inspire some to incidental to a single boxing match but fight for racial justice (Mumford 1997, p. 6). foundational to how the sport of boxing Within the fight’s white supremacist and Johnson’s career and reputation came environment there was a clear racial di- to be understood and represented within vision of the boxers in terms of heroism America. and villainy. Jeffries was portrayed by the Thus the national spectacle of the white establishment as courageous, disci- Johnson versus Jeffries fight was not just plined, civilized and solid, while Johnson a sporting event, but it also served to test was “yellow,” savage, a braggart and a white attitudes and superiority on a grand drinker. Detractors represented Johnson scale. At the turn of the 20th century, ra- as primitive and gorilla-like, in asserting cial theories posited white boxers as ag- his supposedly innate inferiority, while gressive whereas blacks were perceived also taking issue with his nonchalant and as deferent, passive, and defensive. New carefree demeanor during training camp. scientific studies at the time­ar gued that What especially contributed to ­Johnson’s white male bodies had evolved through image as a public menace to white centuries of Darwinist survival of the fit- ­America was the open and unapologetic test (Bederman 1995, p. 42). For many way he had affairs with white women— white Americans, Jeffries was the em- and even married them—at a time when bodiment of white superiority and com- interracial mixing and sexual relations mentators could not help, but draw stark was not just illegal, but could and did get differences between the two fighters, black men lynched. In contrast, members differences that were grounded in white of the black press, while having complex supremacist understandings of race and and sometimes contradictory opinions culture in the US (Strible 1996, p. 180). of Johnson’s exploits, expressed great

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 230 alderman et al. support for the black champion leading bout. For the purposes of this paper, we up to and immediately after the fight with are interested in analyzing the “black vil- Jeffries. They touted his strength, agility, lainy” of Jack Johnson, interpreting it as and gentlemanliness—with the Chicago part of the “racialized reputational pol- Defender declaring him to be a “hero” itics” that have long undergirded white (Teresa 2015). The fighters themselves supremacy and the subjugation of African realized the broader implications with Americans. Johnson’s public image was Jeffries declaring, “I realize full well just open to control and contest by white and what depends on me, and I am not going black publics as well as the athlete himself to disappoint the public. That portion of as he exerted authority over his own life as the white race that has been looking to me a black man in Jim Crow America. to defend its athletic superiority may feel Critically, the reputational politics that assured that I am fit to do my very best” we identify are central to the everyday (quoted in Roberts 1983, pp. 103–4). With ways Jim Crow segregation operated as each punishing blow, however, Johnson a racial project (Omi and Winant 1994). was not only undermining Jeffries claim For Jim Crow to be successful it wasn’t as the superior fighter, he was eviscerating just that African Americans had to know the white supremacist logics that were the their place in the American racial land- basis of the emerging racially segregated scape, but the reality of Jim Crow had to national landscape. This point was not lost be constantly reinforced through a series on black and white observers at the time, of ­cultural logics and stereotypes that justi- particularly those affiliated with churches fied white supremacy within the US racial and social reform organizations, who state. Yet, to see the reality of these logics feared the Johnson-Jefferies bout would as simply operating as a tool of oppression inflame racial animosities and spark vi- is to miss the creative and subaltern ways olence. For instance, in the immediate African Americans could and did appropri- wake of Johnson’s victory in Reno, several ate those images for their own ends. Con- African American newspapers from across sequently, our reading of “the Fight of the the country expressed concern that the Century” is less about the boxing match it- victorious rejoicing of blacks would dam- self and instead focuses on how the match age race relations because of the white illustrated the contested, nuanced and resentment and retaliation it might spur fraught US racial landscape at the turn of (The Freeman 1910). the century, a time when white America The promotion of these racialized im- was attempting to reinforce segregation ages of hero and villain were certainly en- and second-class citizenship for African demic and pivotal to the emerging racial Americans in the wake of the end of the US order of early 20th century US society, and Civil War and the growth of segregation. they were not new to Johnson or boxing. We suggest and demonstrate that black vil- But these images were actively recreated lainy, while certainly a tool of oppression, and reinforced as part of Johnson versus was transformed in ­Johnson’s hands into Jefferies, and consciously planned by Tex a tactic of resistance. We do so by offering Rickard, the promoter of the match, as a an abridged biographical examination of means of building hype for the interracial Johnson, recognizing that other scholars

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 231 have provided more comprehensive treat- and Jansson (2017, pp. 237–238) argue: ments of the prizefighter’s struggles and “critical studies in sport can make impor- social significance (Sackler 1968;Gilmor­ e tant contributions to ongoing research 1975; Ward 2004; Burns et al. 2005; and advocacy efforts on issues of social ­Runstedtler 2013). Instead, our purpose justice.” is to contextualize Jack Johnson within a Important to understanding the ca- broader historical geographic understand- pacity of sport as an arena for challenging ing of white supremacy, and to use this racial inequality is examining the spaces, moment to explore the complex and seem- movements, and struggles of the African ingly counter-intuitive intersections of re- American athlete, although very little sistance and dominance that framed the traditional or new critical geographical burgeoning US racial segregated hierarchy work has taken on the topic. The black at the turn of the 20th century. sports figure has a contested place within US society not only as a victim of racism, but also as a challenger of an unjust social critical racial and spatial order, whether that challenge geographies of sport is overt protest and activism or the every- We draw upon scholarly studies of “the day politics of surviving and even thriving Fight of the Century” and key moments in the face of white supremacy (Alder­ man in Johnson’s life inside and outside the and Inwood 2016). It is a theme of con- ring to develop wider theoretical insights siderable historical importance when into the construction of identity, the op- interpreting the politicized careers of eration of social power, and the complex not only Johnson, but also other noted dynamics of racial control and resistance ­African ­American athletes such as Henry in the America’s settler colonial state ­Armstrong, Arthur Ashe, Alice ­Coachman, (Bonds and Inwood 2016). At the same Jesse Owens, Jackie R­ obinson, Althea time, our work seeks to join recent con- ­Gibson, and ­Muhammad Ali. The racial versations about “critical geographies of politics of sports remains highly charged sport” (Koch 2017). The study of sports today as the public debates the decisions by geographers—traditionally focused on of professional football players Colin mapping and analyzing spatial patterns in ­Kaepernick, Eric Reid and others to take athletic talent, teams, and fan support—­ a knee at NFL games during the playing has begun an important shift to examining of the national anthem in protest of police the ­relationship between sports and the brutality against people of color. Moreo- ­expression of identity, place and power ver, black athletes continue to find them- (e.g., Bale 2002; Shobe 2008; Gaffney selves (un)willing participants in the 2010; Koch 2013; Conner 2014; Koch ­racialized promotion of sporting events. 2015). This more critical engagement also Recent examples include the racial taunts includes a nascent focus on the role of race, and stereotyping hurled in the 2017 Floyd racial identity, and racism within sports Mayweather and Conor McGregor boxing geography (Mitchelson and Lazaro 2004; match (Bieler 2017). Coleman 2006; Cuadros 2011; Alder­ man African American athletes hold a and Inwood 2016; Conner 2017). As Koch unique if not sometimes privileged status

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 232 alderman et al. within society, but this is not to suggest claiming the right to live on his own terms. that their lives and careers are separate It is this dialectic tension which makes from and not in some way reflective of Johnson’s biography a powerful analytic the broader communities to which they tool to explore how the reputational strug- belong. The “racialized reputational pol- gles of the era were central to an emerging itics” that constructed Jack Johnson as Jim Crow racist politics. a villain have long operated in defining ­African Americans as not only inferior, on our biographical but as threats to white moral authority approach and political power. This negative rep- utational framing is more than a mere Before delving deeply into the concept cultural label, but has a history and ge- of reputational politics, we want to discuss ography of shaping material inequalities the value of a biographical approach to suffered by ­African Americans, includ- the study of race and a geographically sit- ing the injury and lynching of thousands uated discussion of Johnson as well as the of African Americans. The “villainous” specific contextual aims of our treatment tropes applied to Johnson were felt by of Johnson’s biography. Our biographical many black Americans and fueled an era approach is consistent with critical race of public hysteria over the idea of a brutish theory (CRT), which asserts that the ex- and lust-crazed “bad Negro,” a racist stere- periential knowledge of people of color otype that not only created geographies of is central to understanding and challeng- white supremacy, but defined black social ing racial inequality and thus necessary and spatial mobility as transgressive, dan- for fully exploring the lives, perspectives, gerous and hence a threat to the existing and struggles of people of color (e.g., political-economic order. Johnson is an Schur 2002; Crenshaw 2011; Alderman especially powerful illustration of this ra- and Inwood 2016). Critical race theory cialization of reputation. emerged during the 1970s from the work In applying a reputational politics of legal scholars Derrick Bell and Alan framework, we seek to understand the Freeman who were frustrated over the contested terrain that was Johnson’s pub- “slow pace of racial reform” and wanted to lic identity and that of all African Ameri- understand the way race was reproduced cans. Indeed, what is especially interest- in the US legal system (Delgado and Ste- ing and instructive about Jack Johnson’s fancic 2002, p. xvi). Since that time, CRT reputational politics was not just the con- has evolved to encompass a variety of troversial place he held within white racist academic disciplines and incorporate a imaginaries, but the sometimes-negative wider critique of the processes involved reactions he evoked among civil rights in sustaining systems of racial oppression leaders and the black press at the time. Im- in the US (Lynn et al. 2002). Moreover, portantly, following a resistant black out- CRT shifted our understandings of racism law tradition, Johnson appropriated and from “willful acts of aggression” to “dis- manipulated his own Jim Crow villainy cussions of [the ways] race and racism and used it to challenge a white racist so- are deeply embedded within the frame- ciety and a black establishment while also work of ­American society” (Parker and

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Lynn 2002, p. 8). Currently, CRT posits narratives that challenge commonly held that “racism is normal, not aberrant in assumptions about the nature of race and American society” and argues that current the continuing consequences of racism in efforts at addressing racial injustice only US society (Price 2010). “remedy the more extreme and shocking Important to our discussion is the forms of injustice” noting that more sub- distinction that Hodder (2017) makes tle forms of racism are almost impossible ­between “biography as subject” and “bi- to address using current legal and eco- ography as method.” The former empha- nomic solutions (­Delgado and Stefancic sizes the lives of historical figures as texts 2002, p. xvi). Those who adopt a CRT ap- to be studied in and of themselves while proach frequently: 1) recognize that race the latter approach emphasizes a contex- is a social construction and argue for the tual analysis of people’s lives. Our con- eradication of racism; 2) draw important textualized biographical approach, which relationships between race and other axes follows other examples in geography of domination thus illuminating the way (Myers 1998; Alderman 2004; Alderman racism links with other forms of injustice; and Inwood 2016), is “less concerned with 3) present narratives and other qualitative knowing a life per se than how those expe- approaches as valid approaches through riences can cast light on the wider social which to examine race and racism (Parker and cultural worlds that a life inhabits” and Lynn 2002, p. 10). (Hodder 2017, p. 453). By examining the Critical race theory integrates con- biography of Johnson, opportunities exist cepts about the social construction of to understand the broader structures of ra- race with work on racism through quali- cial oppression that have dominated in the tative methodologies. This intends to il- US and continue to structure the everyday luminate questions about social inequal- lives of men and women in the US. ity and the spatial reproduction of that A biographical approach informed by inequality through the deployment of CRT is often occupied with using primary CRT (Solorzano and Yosso 2002, p. 24) sources to uncover previously unknown which emphasizes empirically grounded or under-appreciated people of color and case studies. Critical race theory 1) fore- their experiences. Yet, as in the case of a grounds race and racism in all aspects of famous person such as Jack Johnson, a bi- the research process; 2) challenges tradi- ographical analysis can also concern itself tional research paradigms used to ­explain with drawing from published accounts, the experiences of persons of color; 3) of- employing new theoretical frameworks fers transformative solutions to racial, to reread the biography, and relating gender, and class subordination; and these new readings to larger understand- 4) focuses on the experiences of persons of ings of the historical geography of racism color (Solorzano and Yosso 2002, p. 24). and racial resistance. Such biographical It is the last point, the focus on the experi- work involves creating webs of relevance ences of persons of color, which is ­central within disciplinary communities such to understanding our approach to the life as geography that are largely unfamil- and times of Jack Johnson. We use the bi- iar with Johnson. Such an approach has ography of Johnson to illuminate larger long dominated in critical theory and

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 234 alderman et al. feminist methodologies and has been used Americans of the early 20th century. The to reevaluate the biographies and, in par- transformation of prizefighters into sports ticular, the key turning point moments in celebrities was a process that had begun the lives of a range of historical figures in the 19th century (Gorn 1986), but it (e.g. Denzin 1989; Erne 1998; Gibson reached an unprecedented level in Nevada 1999; Aurell 2006). with the filming of the Johnson vs. Jeffries for movie theater distribution. And, no less important in our view, the bout served Johnson vs. Jeffries as as an important flashpoint in the historical Flashpoint in US Race geography of US race relations. It is that Relations reality which motivates our rereading of As we argue in this paper, using the fight and our use of a critical, contex- ­Johnson’s performance in the ring and tualized biographical approach. a rereading of his larger public image— and how it was interpreted by white and black America—we illuminate the larger biography of johnson politics of controlling and injuring black contextualized bodies and reputations during the Jim Crow era. Critically, it is not our intent to Leon Litwack (1998) describes the pe- reduce Jack Johnson’s biography and the riod in which Johnson lived and fought as formation of his reputation to the victory the nadir of the African American expe- over Jeffries and the public responses that rience in North America. In the wake of surrounded that bout. Johnson’s public the US Civil War and with the restoration persona as a black hero or villain did not of the Southern plantation aristocracy, begin nor did it end with “the Fight of the the freedoms that newly freed slaves en- Century.” Indeed, Johnson fought his last joyed after the end of the war were rolled bout as heavyweight champion in Havana, back as a resurgent white supremacy re- Cuba, losing to Willard, while spending asserted itself into the political and eco- several years as a fugitive in exile from nomic life of the nation during the Jim the US. He fled the country after a 1913 Crow era. The term “Jim Crow” refers to conviction under the Mann Act for trans- a racial caste-like system that began as porting a white woman (prostitute and early as 1877 with the end of Reconstruc- former girlfriend Belle Schreiber) across tion and operated nationally but most state lines for supposedly immoral pur- violently in the southeastern US. While poses. With the defeat of the champion, Jim Crow is often identified with rigid many in the black public mourned and laws that marginalized and excluded the white press celebrated, portraying the ­African ­Americans, it actually represents bout as a triumph of Willard’s character a broad array of formal and informal so- over ­Johnson’s skill. The 1910 match with cial, ­economic, and political practices Jeffries was not the totality of Johnson’s­ that segregated blacks and whites and career, but as we argue it played a major justified rampant racism, intimidation, role in his emergence as one of the and violence toward ­African Americans most famous and controversial African (Woodward 1955; Litwack 1998).

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The segregationist and discriminatory white labor, became the basis of a sys- Jim Crow laws and practices that were tem of industry which ruined democ- enacted throughout the southeastern US racy (Du Bois 1935, p. 30). created an American form of apartheid Key to understanding Du Bois’ analy- that had implications beyond the separa- sis is the way segregationist polices after tion of the races. In particular, the ways the Civil War were advanced by an emer- the US continued to rely on subjugated gent coalition of labor and industrialists black labor and the way those needs through a shared value system of white were translated broadly into the pre- supremacist logics. Thus, and importantly, dominant system of racial apartheid are the segregationist policies underlying the central to understanding the period in Jim Crow era needed to be rearticulated which ­Johnson fought. As W.E.B. Du Bois through a variety of popular mediums in (1935, p. 5) explains, the exploitation of order to resonate with and reinforce the black labor is the “foundation stone not emerging racist order. This can be seen in only of the Southern social structure, everything from the explosive growth of but of Northern manufacture and com- black face minstrelsy to the use of racist merce.” Following the end of the Civil advertising to sell everything from kitchen War the relationships between Northern soap to chewing tobacco (Hale 1998). capitalist and the Southern plantation Jack Johnson is important to under- aristocracy appeared to sunder. However, standing the racialized realities of the Jim throughout the history of the US, race, Crow era for a number of reasons. First, gender, sexuality, and class have been he came of age during this period. Born central to under­ standing the political in 1878 and raised in Galveston, Texas, by and economic reproduction of the nation his parents who had once been enslaved, and this relationship rests foundationally Johnson was a member of the first gen- upon the relations between black and eration of African Americans born after white labor (Du Bois 1935). As Du Bois the end of slavery and freedom. Newly explains: freed slaves and those born outside of The plight of the white working class slavery were a visceral symbol of all that throughout the world today is directly had gone wrong for southern whites at traceable to Negro slavery in Amer- the end of the Civil War and in this sense ica, on which modern commerce and Johnson was the embodiment of the end industry was founded, and which of the old racial order. David Oshinsky persisted to threaten free labor until (1996, p. 14) explains that the freedoms it was partially overthrown in 1863. enjoyed by African Americans in the wake The resulting color caste founded and of the Civil War and the southern defeat retained by capitalism was adopted, symbolized what could not be made right forwarded and approved by white as long as black men and women could labor, and resulted in subordination freely enjoy the spaces that had previously of colored labor to white profits the been the sole preserve of whites. Writing world over. Thus the majority of the in the New York Tribune Whitelaw Reid world’s laborers, by the insistence of observed, “However these men may have

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 236 alderman et al. regarded the Negro slave, they hated the exploited, and maligned by the popular Negro freeman. However kind they may press and the media have their roots in the have been to Negro property, they were growth of boxing and other sports at the virulently vindictive against a property turn of the 20th century. More sinisterly, that has escaped their control” (quoted in however, Johnson’s rise to fame is juxta- Oshinsky 1996, p. 15). Segregation—and posed against another form of spectacle its resultant racist configurations of power that predominated during the late 19th and privilege—were part of the solution and early 20th century—lynching. to these realities. And in working through The exact number of lynchings will Johnson’s life we can understand both never be known. Brundage (1997, p. 4) how segregation came to control and con- reports that between 1880 and 1930 an strain black life, but also how it could be estimated 3,220 blacks were lynched resisted. and lynchings were predominantly in the Perhaps more importantly, Johnson South. Critical to understanding lynching was a boxer, and boxing during that time in the context of an emerging consum- was one of the most popular, if not the erist society, is a recognition of the great most popular, sporting events in the US. It extent that lynching was a public event. is also important to note that boxing was In many cases, newspapers announced in illegal in many places during the turn of advance the time and place of lynchings the 20th century America and the some- and in some cases railroads ran special ex- what underground nature of professional cursion trains to ensure that city dwellers prize fighting provided the space to carry could make it to the lynching of African out Johnson’s famous interracial bouts Americans outside of an urban context. when other sanctioned sports remained It was not uncommon for schools and entirely segregated. This did not mean businesses to shut down in anticipation that boxing was somehow immune to and of the impending deathscape. As Litwack stood apart from the white supremacy (2009) concludes, to kill the victim was of the day, which sought to appropriate not enough; the execution became public Johnson’s image and very body for its own theater, a participatory ritual of torture purposes. Indeed, Johnson’s life and the and death, a voyeuristic spectacle pro- ways white society engaged with and tried longed as long as possible for the benefit to marginalize and control the fighter is of the crowd. indicative of the role of sport as spectacle African Americans were lynched for and the specific historical role that boxing, many reasons, but sex was ostensibly at as a mass consumerist enterprise, played the heart of many of these spectacle kill- in re-inscribing the emerging white su- ings. “Nearly a quarter of all lynchings premacist racial order. This idea has cur- were based on charges of sexual assault, rency in contemporary US society as we but often an accusation of rape, or the understand how sports, and in particular simple act of knocking on a white woman’s the media portrayals of black athletes, door, would suffice” (Westcott 2015, para. continue to reaffirm the significance of 6). While the protection of white women race and racism. The reputational politics from the presumed sexual threat that of athletes and how they are marketed, black men posed was frequently invoked

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 237 as a reason, lynching also filled much scoundrel, led to a broader geography of broader desires on the part of white com- racial violence between celebrating and munities to maintain social and spatial defiant blacks and whites angered by what order over African Americans and elimi- they saw as a strike against the Jim Crow nate black assertion of rights and competi- status quo. While African Americans at- tion within economic, political, and social tacked whites in some instances, most spheres (Payne 2007). This fact provides of the violence repeated the nation’s es- context to understand how dangerous tablished pattern of whites mobbing and Johnson’s victories and sexual relation- injuring blacks and much of this racial ships were challenging to broader white terrorism was indiscriminate and targeted supremacist control. any and all black citizens who got in the The unexpected victory of Johnson way as whites sought to assert their ra- over Jeffries in Nevada (it was at least cial dominance even if Jeffries could not unexpected from the perspective of many (­Gilmore 1975). whites) was a significant jolt to this pub- Johnson is a pivotal figure in the lic culture of watching and participating emerging racial order of early 20th cen- in the intimation, humiliation, and mur- tury American society, not just because he dering of black Americans. The famous vanquished a white fighter so handily but African American educator Benjamin also because he is emblematic of a larger Mays was fourteen at the time of the historical geography of racial conflict. ­Johnson-Jeffries bout. He recalled years His victory, when contextualized within later the anxiety felt in South Carolina: images of Jim Crow black villainy and in- “White men in my county could not take feriority, demonstrated something larger it [when Johnson defeated Jeffries]…. than a single boxing match. Johnson ex- Negroes dared not discuss the outcome posed in raw form the potential power of this match in the presence of whites. of black resistance and simultaneously In fact, Johnson’s victory was hard on the limits of this defiance in the face of the white man’s world…Jack Johnson growing Jim Crow racism and white con- committed two grave blunders as far as trol. Johnson could dispatch Jeffries with whites were concerned: He beat up a ease, but it was much more difficult for the white man and he was socializing with a ­millions of African Americans living under white woman—both deadly sins” (quoted the everyday threat of racial terrorism in Gilmor­ e 1976, p. 65). and lynching to conquer their white de- Mays also reported that African Amer- tractors. ­Johnson’s transgressions inside icans in his hometown of Greenwood, and outside the ring continued to inspire South Carolina, were beaten up in the subjugated blacks and emboldened white aftermath of the Johnson victory, a scene intransigency. Many cities, especially in that repeated in many places inside and the South, prohibited the showing of the outside the South (Reimann 2017). In filmed ­Johnson-Jeffries fight in motion fact, Johnson’s successful battle against picture theaters (e.g., if not to prevent fur- white supremacy within the ring, allowed ther racial riots then to “spare the white him to defy and delegitimize efforts to cast race the humiliation of seeing its high-­ him as a mentally and physically inferior esteemed champion knocked out in vivid

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 238 alderman et al. repetition”) (Gilmore 1975, p. 75). Sup- the lines of action and thought encour- pression of the Johnson fight film was also aged or discouraged by such reputational part of an effort to control the fighter’s framings. These images can have a legacy following and popularity, not providing or what Jansen (2007, p. 984) calls “repu- an alternative to the decidedly non-heroic tational trajectories.” Over time and space, image that was projected in the pages of a heroic or villainous reputation can take white-control newspapers. As we discuss on the power of social fact and memory in the next section, Johnson’s struggle aid in placing events within a particular against white supremacy, like all African moral context. Fine (2001, p. 6) points to Americans, was clearly a bodily one, but the public pedagogical power of historical one must also recognize the racialized rep- reputations: “Images of public figures are utational politics that he and many other used in an attempt to teach citizens how black Americans confronted and sought to they should think about the issues that reclaim and redefine. confront them.” This was the case with Johnson as his black advocates and white detractors each used his public following reputational politics to project larger positive and negative The idea of “reputational politics” is meanings on the reputation of all African central to understanding the racially Americans. charged and contradictory way that Jack Two key ideas underlie a reputational Johnson came to be seen as a hero by politics framework and are crucial to ana- many blacks and as a villain to much of lyzing the construction and contestation white America. Reputational politics is a of Johnson’s social persona. First, the con- term and analytical framework developed struction of heroes and villains is driven in sociology by Fine (2001, 2012) and ap- by entrepreneurs working within broader plied within geography by Leib (2004), systems of the political economy that help Post (2009), and Alderman (2002). Repu- frame and legitimize the persona of public tation, in the words of Fine (2001, pp. 2-3) reputations. “Reputations are embedded in is “a socially recognized persona…not social relations,” according to Fine (2001, the opinion that one individual forms of p. 3), and are important tools in the every- another; rather, it is a shared established day negotiation of identity, power, and image.” The concept of reputational pol- rights within communities. Second, we sug- itics suggests that a public reputation is gest reputations are embedded within the not simply intrinsic to a person and his socio-spatial dialectic and thus reflect and or her achievements. Rather, reputations project historical and geographic systems are shaped by a larger community of so- of racial, ethnic, gender, and class preju- cial actors, groups, and organizations who dice and discrimination. The public image operate as “reputational entrepreneurs.” of a person influences and is influenced by These entrepreneurs trade in what is the the image and place of the social group— social and symbolic capital of reputations dominant or ­marginalized—to which he by claiming, controlling, defending, or or she is associated. denouncing the cultural legitimacy or fol- The reputational politics approach lowing of a public figure, thus influencing prompts scholars to consider the work

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 239 that heroic and villainous reputations “inferior” to Jeffries. These framings ranged do in producing and challenging social from representing the essential mental boundaries, divisions, and hierarchies and phys­­ical ­inferiority of ­Johnson as an and the way these reputations can be ­African ­American to representing him pic- capitalized on in a consumerist economy. torially and textually in terms of tradi- A ­critical analysis of Jack Johnson is not tional sambo and coon caricatures. Finally, possible without recognizing the rep- Johnson was also painted with the villainy utational struggles that have long con- of the “bad Negro” or what ­Hutchison strained, and continue to constrain, the calls the “bad buck” stereotype. The “bad African ­American struggle for civil rights, Negro” or “bad buck” stereotype relied survivability, and mobility (social and upon framing ­African ­American men as spatial). People of color have historically physically strong, violent, and over-sexed had their wider social image or reputation threats to society. In drawing attention to demeaned, demonized, and controlled by this racist trope the white press was chan- a white supremacist power structure that neling racist images that predominated in has sought to restrict the aspirations of the US and were often used to justify the African Americans and others. However, lynching of black men in the US South. the capacity of African Americans to make The bad buck reputation was pervasive in interventions in and contest how their so- the Jim Crow South and elicited visceral cial personae are framed publicly helps us reactions from whites, fueling many of to understand the complex and contested the public fears and demands to protect terrain of reputational politics. white womanhood and to seek revenge against people of color at the time. As pub- Jim Crow Era lic controversy and legal action intensified Foundational to a system of white su- in 1912 over Johnson’­ s interracial sexual premacy, especially during the Jim Crow relations, one saw growth in public calls, era was an oppressive rewriting of the especially from the South, for the fighter public reputations of African Americans to be lynched (­Gilmore 1973). coupled with the tight control of their Hutchison (2012) argues that Johnson­ ’s bodies, hopes, and movements within public image was heavily shaped and racist America. Accompanying Jim Crow slanted by the era’s white press, reflect- was the creation and daily reproduction ing not only a desire to characterize and of racist stereotypes of African Amer­ icans. interpret him in selective ways, but the Hutchison (2012) encourages us to con- press coverage also served the wider so- sider the powerful way that dominant cial project of constructing whiteness as white interests defined Johnson as the heroic and the moral norm. In this sense, “other” by relying upon and advancing ­Johnson’s public persona and his arrogant this readily available stock of stereotypical manner could both play into white stereo- images. Indeed, in these efforts to fash- types, but could also stand in stark opposi- ion a public image of Jack Johnson, the tion to those same stereotypes. In using a white press characterized him using a va- reputational politics framework, we need riety of stereotypical framings that sought to consider how the framing of Johnson’s to portray Johnson as “dangerous” and persona and that of all African Americans

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 240 alderman et al. as a group were manipulated and made to the professional boxing ring with a white work to serve a white supremacist social man, but also within the wider society as system, thus illustrating how the produc- a full-fledged human being not defined tion of heroes and villains as racial labels by racist stereotypes. Teresa (2015) ana- and categories was not simply a matter of lyzes for example the important role that language and perception but also integral America’s black press played in offering to negotiating the socio-spatial, life and a counterpoint to the tearing down of death material existence of people of color Johnson’s reputation by the white press. in America. She finds that the primary goal of black The vilifying of African American rep- newspapers, acting as “reputational en- utations during the Jim Crow era and trepreneurs,” was to “frame Johnson’s throughout US history has surely been victory [over Jeffries] in terms of racial controlled by white dominant interests, pride while undermining the negative but that control—as part of the process publicity the outspoken boxer received of racialization—has never been absolute in the mainstream [white] press” (Teresa or complete. This leads us to the second 2015, p. 28). In contrast to the grotesque major theme underlying a reputational caricatures of Johnson in the white press politics approach, namely that the repu- as a big lipped and ignorant stereotype, tations of individuals and their associated photographs in black newspapers showed groups are always open to competing con- the champion as either a flexing and fear- structions and interpretations. Accord- some fighter or a well-dressed and socially ing to Fine (1996, p. 1166), “Reputations mobile gentleman (Teresa 2015). Perhaps are not inevitable; they may be changed nowhere were these tropes more evident or contested,” and the active process of than in the aftermath of the defeat of building reputations is “caught up in bat- Jeffries. The San Francisco Call, the city’s tles between attackers and defenders.” prevailing white newspaper at the time, ­Indeed, claiming control of the reputation-­ noted that Johnson was a “clever Negro” building process can serve as the basis of who baffled Jeffries. The paper went on resisting and redefining imposed personal to note that Johnson, who is described and group identities and the inequalities as the “black object,” “sprang catlike and that accompany them. Accompanying the glided snake like” in pummeling Johnson history of white control and marginaliza- (­Edgren 1910, p. 15). This description tion of the public image and legitimacy of ties into a long history of dehumanizing African Americans is also the story of the ­African Americans and attributing ­African black struggle to define their social repu- American athletes with superhuman tation in more favorable and emancipa- attributes. tory ways. We would be mistaken to reduce the reputational struggle over Jack Johnson to Media Interpretation a dualism between a hero-creating black The reputational politics surround- community and a vilifying white society. ing Jack Johnson proved to be an im- Reputational politics, in general, are char- portant arena for asserting the right of acterized by a complex convergence of dif- African Americans to belong not just in ferent ideological positions and discursive

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 241 rivalries that must be accounted for. ostensibly to make sex trafficking a federal In reality, Johnson had a controversial crime but was applied in practice rather ­relationship with the black press and ambiguously and prejudicially. It was a major black leaders at the time. According dubious conviction motivated by the white to Teresa (2015, p. 38), “the black press establishments’ outrage over Johnson’s sought to offer support to [black] individ- inter-racial relationships. His reputation uals who could represent the best of the among some African ­Americans under- race and debunk negative stereotypes.” went revision out of fear of all blacks being Johnson had this reputational support targeted by whites inflamed by Johnson’s when he embodied the “ideal early twen- lifestyle if not on sheer moral grounds. tieth century black citizen who was eco- The Washington Bee, which had previ- nomically powerful and socially mobile ously praised Johnson as a “gentleman enough to challenge the prevailing racial and a man,” later proclaimed “The colored assumptions of white America” (Teresa people of this country are not responsible 2015, p. 39). However, some black news- for the acts of Jack Johnson….Jack John- paper journalists and editors began dis- son is not regarded as a hero, but a pa- tancing themselves from Johnson as “his riah among respectable colored men and personal vices and unabashed arrogance women” (quoted in Teresa 2015, p. 30). clashed with other ideals of the black com- Of course, one did not see this condemna- munity during this period—an insistence tion across the board. The Topeka Plains on dignity, morality, and temperance” Dealer, a Kansas African American news- (­Teresa 2015, p. 39). paper, noted that Johnson was the target of whites “framing up” charges against Reactions to Flaunting him while also taking issue with the incon- Social Norms sistent way that inter-racial relationships In particular, Johnson’s transgres- were treated in America. Specifically, the sion of the sexual color line drew intense paper argued that if government officials public attention and criticism. Johnson’s and the white press prosecute Johnson, biographers note that white women were then they should address the wrongful a mainstay in his personal entourages acts committed against black women by and that he had numerous casual sexual white men. affairs and long-term relationships with Johnson was the target of the ire of white women, including a marriage to the famous Booker T. Washington, whose Brooklyn socialite Etta Terry Duryea (Farr teachings about racial uplift through ac- 1964; ­Gilmore 1973). Within a month commodation, frugality, and industrious- of ­Duryea’s suicide and funeral in 1912, ness appeared to collide with the fight­ er’s Johnson was seen arm in arm with an- indulgent lifestyle and the forthright way other white female companion, Lucille he questioned and challenged white so- Cameron (Burns et al. 2005). The heav- cial conventions. Gilmore (1975) also yweight champion’s symbolic value to suggests that Washington may have been the black community became especially jealous of the great attention that Johnson damaged after being found guilty of vio- was receiving at the time. He criticized lating the Mann Act, which was created ­African Americans for betting so heavily

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 242 alderman et al. on Johnson in the bout with Jeffries (Gil- public figure in question, especially once more 1975). One of Washington’s biog- that figures dies, it is important to recog- raphers (Norrell 2009, p. 413) notes that nize the agency that the individual hero or Johnson represented a “public relations villain can exert within their own reputa- nightmare” for the famed Tuskegee leader, tional politics since they are cognizant of “a black man who threatened white dom- and react to the larger social and spatial ination in both his physical and sexual system within which their achievements prowess.” Washington publicly denounced are interpreted publicly. If one stopped Johnson during his Mann Act trial, point- investigating Johnson’s reputational po­­ ing to the great injury that the fighter was litics with simply discussing how the doing to the black race. In a 1912 speech wider white and black communities de- before the Detroit YMCA Washington picted him, then one would run the risk of used the controversy to reaffirm his be- viewing Johnson as simply a pawn rather lief that “men should be educated along than as a conscious social and geographic mental and spiritual lines in connection agent. In reality, Johnson manipulated his with their physical education” (quoted own public image in controversial ways for in ­Gilmore 1973, p.25). Washington also the purposes of racial resistance and ful- lands a rather stinging hit to Johnson’s filling his own personal desires and needs. reputation as hero when he says: “A man He did this undeterred by dominant white with muscle minus brains is a useless crea- interests who sought to depict him, cul- ture,” which also tragically echoes some of turally and legally, as a villain and later in the white supremacist stereotypes that de- defiance when segments of his wno black picted black men as brutish and mentally community treated him with ambivalence inferior (quoted in Gilmore 1975, p.102). if not rejection. Washington, like others within the African While black villainy is a destructive American community, understood and force within society, it is also necessary to projected Johnson’s public image through recognize its potential to be productive, a certain ideological, political prism of and a basis for anti-racist politics, when blacks winning and earning respectability appropriated by African Americans. There in the eyes of white America. While this is a long history in African American folk- ideology was clearly more progressive and lore of celebrating the black outlaw who socially just than what Jim Crow offered freely moves about and boldly violates black Americans, certain segments of the moral and legal norms. It is a social per- black establishment sought nevertheless sona and reputational framing dating to control Johnson’s reputation and pop- back to the days of slave resistance to ular following for their own personal ends describe an African American who “ada- as well as part of (re)defining the social mantly refuses to accept the place given to and spatial place of African Americans blacks in American society, and who fre- within US society. quently challenges the outer perimeters of expected behavior” (Gilmore 1975, p. 12). Individual Agency Importantly, rather than denying or While it is true that reputation can seeking to mitigate his Jim Crow villainy, have a social life of its own beyond the Johnson went to great pains to play the

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 243 part. He directly and fearlessly chal- poor and conservative. It would be easy lenged the legitimacy of a racist social to dismiss or de-value Johnson’s antics as order and flaunted social conventions at serving to reinforce white America’s stere- the time by dating and marrying white otypes (see ­Hutchison 2012), but to do so women (­Gilmore 1975). Point in fact he is to lose sight of the spaces of resistance was quoted as saying: “I have the right that are created when a black man takes to choose who my mate shall be without control of the politics of constructing his the dictations of any man” (Gilmore 1975, own public image out of the hands of his p. 14). Johnson’s own reputation-building white oppressors and manipulates and was not limited to simply taking a contro- benefits from the process for his own ma- versial stand against Jim Crow laws, but terial reproduction. included the frequent pleasure he took In characterizing the anti-racist politics in “aggravating and annoying whites” that Johnson carried out by framing his (Gilmore 1975, p. 14). In the integrated own reputational following in ways that Chicago nightclub he owned, named Café many whites and some blacks would find de Champion, Johnson hung a large por- contemptuous, it is important to note that trait of him embracing his white wife. He the black champion never represented was also known to play the bass violin himself as a role model or as a civil rights on the club’s bandstand and sing “I Love crusader. However, as Alderman and In- My Wife.” Especially interesting was how wood (2016) discuss in the context of Jack Johnson took possession of and cul- Wendell Scott, another African American turally weaponized the very stereotypical sports figure who competed during the depictions that had for so long been used Jim Crow era, political practice need not to constrain black expression and identity. be restricted to formal protest, commen- “Prior to the Jeffries fight, for example, tary, or campaigns. The very act of surviv- he mugged for newsreel cameras by con- ing and, in the case of Johnson thriving, in spicuously bulging his eyes and grinning the face of rampant racism was a form of unnaturally in the manner of minstrel everyday anti-racism work. Important to performer” (Hutchison 2012, p. 225). Ac- Johnson’s constructed public persona, as cording to Gilmore (1975, p. 14), “most well as Scott’s, was the important way that daring and potentially explosive act came each refused to show fear to an incredibly during his sparring sessions when he hostile white world. played on the innermost fears of white men and the fantasies of white women concluding remarks by wrapping his penis in gauze bandages, enhancing its size for all onlookers, and We have introduced and begun inter- strolled around the ring affecting the awe preting the highly racially charged career and admiration of all.” Ostentatious dis- and life story of African American heav- plays of wealth and extravagant parties yweight boxer Jack Johnson, using a his- were other important ways of not only torically and geographically situated and embellishing his hedonistic reputation, contextualized reading of his biography but also irritating a white supremacist so- and public persona to understand what his ciety that kept many African­ Americans 1910 victory over Jim Jeffries symbolized

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 244 alderman et al. to Jim Crow America. As we suggest, the notably Muhammad Ali, who frequently complex racialized ways in which Johnson invoked the memory of Johnson when was constructed as both heroic and villain- facing his own struggles to define who he ous point to a broader black reputational was and what he stood for politically and politics that, on one hand, undergirded racially (Ali and Durham 1975). The issue white supremacy’s segregation, disenfran- of athletes as political actors begs us to re- chisement and even murder of people of alize that the practices of celebrity athletes color and, on the other hand, carried the and the impact of these practices and their seeds of anti-racism resistance. Johnson’s reputations cannot necessarily be made public image—what Fine (2001) would analogous to the praxis and social persona term a “difficult reputation” because of of traditional political leaders and activists. the controversy and discursive rivalries Thus, a critical reading of Johnson that surrounded it—exposes the con- and the social-spatial environment within straints that whites and blacks imposed which he fought and lived allows us to upon what constituted the proper behav- expand scholarly understandings and ior and place of African Americans in early workings of race in the US and provides 20th century US society. While Johnson’s an important intervention into uncover- public image was claimed and rewritten ing the making of contemporary white by many for progressive and reactionary supremacy. We emphasize the contempo- reasons, in the end the fighter crafted his rary relevance of Johnson. Although it has own resistant social persona. He formed been over 100 years since his vanquishing this persona by physically beating white of Jeffries, African American men (as well opponents in the ring, mocking white su- as women) remain mired in struggles to premacist sexual conventions, refusing to recover and redefine their public identi- defer to conservative black political and ties and reputations. Indeed, undergird- social expectations, and by appropriating ing much of the recent, highly publicized and playing upon the very stereotypical instances of police violence against people reputational framings used against black of color is a history and culture of reputa- Americans for many years. tional politics and stereotypical assump- Analyzing Johnson’s athletic practice tions that is part of rather than apart from in the ring and the reputational politics the racist practices of injuring black bod- within which he engaged and contrib- ies and controlling their movements. Our uted to prompt us to problematize some own current US President, Donald Trump, of our dominant conceptions of black re- has engaged in his own “racialized reputa- sistance within geography. It would take tional politics” of depicting black commu- over twenty years before America would nities as being in “the worst shape ever” allow another black man to fight for the (Jacobson 2016) and referring to Haiti and world heavyweight title and that person, African nations as “shitholes” (Alder­ man Joe Louis, offered a decidedly less contro- 2018). These are not mere labels and hom- versial public image. Other black fighters ilies, but part of the larger historical and have followed in Johnson’s footsteps and continuing geography of white supremacy. used their celebrity to challenge the white-­ In the contemporary, Johnson’s rep- dominated status quo—perhaps most utation continues to be a dynamic and

This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 245 contested terrain. The famous heavy- coverage of the pardon and Johnson’s weight provides white America a way of unjust conviction were discussions of the talking about and even condemning rac- resistant agency that Johnson exercised in ism in the past while not fully coming to trying to define his reputation and life on terms with the inequalities that plague his own terms and in the face of rampant the present. Indeed, over the past several Jim Crow racism. Lost is a moment to un- years, ­Johnson’s legacy has undergone a derstand the full scale of African Amer­ ican positive and sympathetic re-appraisal by humanity, dignity, and defiance that is so historians, politicians, and the broader critical to recovering what McKittrick public, culminating in the PBS documen- (2011) calls a “black sense of place.” tary Unforgivable Blackness (Burns et al. 2005) and the depiction of the fighter acknowledgements as a global as well as national rebel icon The authors wish to thank the anonymous (Runstedtler 2013). In 2009, US Senator reviewers and the editors of Southeastern Geog- John McCain and US Representative Peter rapher for their helpful comments and sugges- King unsuccessfully urged then-President tions, which significantly helped to improve the ­Barack Obama to issue a posthumous pres- paper. Appreciation is also extended to Arielle idential pardon to Johnson for his 1913 Hesse and Jennifer Titanski-Hooper for organ- conviction under the Mann Act. Earlier re- izing a special session at the 2016 meeting of quests for a pardon of Johnson had failed the American Association of Geographers, for in 2004 and 2008 (Associated Press 2009). which an early version of this paper was written Ironically, it would be US President and presented. Donald Trump who would sign Johnson’s pardon, responding to a request from Hol- references cited lywood actor and boxing enthusiast Syl- Alderman, D. H. 2002. Street names as memo­­rial vester Stallone. The pardon was portrayed arenas: The reputational politics of com­­ as an act of racial justice, but it more likely mem­­orating Martin Luther King in a Georgia represented President Trump’s fixation county. Historical Geography 30: 99–120. with one-upping the Obama administra- Alderman, D. H., 2004. Channing Cope and tion. Indeed, during his remarks at the the making of a miracle vine. Geographical pardon ceremony on May 24, 2018, Trump Review 94(2): 157–177. highlighted President Obama’s refusal to Alderman, D. H. 2018. Time for a radical grant clemency to Johnson and how much geographic literacy in Trump America. that decision was “disappointing for a lot Newsletter of the American Association of of people” (British Broadcasting Corpo- Geographers. 1 February. http://news ration 2018). While legal and symbolic .aag.org/2018/02/time-for-a-radical- justice may have been done to Johnson’s geographic-literacy-in-trump-america/ Last legacy through Trump’s pardon, his repu- accessed 15 April 2018. tation was nonetheless appropriated and Alderman, D. H., and Inwood, J. 2016. Mobility controlled in service of a white social order as antiracism work: The “hard driving” that otherwise would not champion the of NASCAR’s Wendell Scott. Annals of rights of African Americans. Importantly, the American Association of Geographers missing from much of the recent news 106(3): 597–611.

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This content downloaded from 152.33.50.165 on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:12:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Jack Johnson versus Jim Crow 249 previously-known-305954 Last accessed dr. joshua inwood ([email protected], 15 April 2018. @joshgeog) is an Associate Professor of Woodward, C.V. 1955. The Strange Career of Geography and a Senior Research Associate at Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University the Rock Ethics Institute at the Pennsylvania Press. State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802. His work is focused on critical race theory, civil rights and the dr. derek h. alderman (dalderma@utk US South. .edu, @mlkstreet) is a Professor of Geography dr. james a. tyner ([email protected], at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, @Tynergeography) is a Professor of Geography Tennessee, 37996 and Past President (2017–18) at Kent State University and a Fellow of the of the American Association of Geographers. American Association of Geographers. The His work focuses on race, social justice, popular author of seventeen books and numerous arti­­ culture, and the historical and contemporary cles, his research interests include population, experiences of African Americans. political geography and political economy.

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