Archie Moore despised Jack Johnson....

Jack Johnson mocked black women, which is why he exclusively dated and cavorted with white women when he had to money to do so. He described black women as being incapable of showing true affection and kindness to him. He routinely cheated on his wives, and wouldn't give a damn whether they wanted him to stop. He was a narcisstic ******* who envied Joe Louis' popularity and celebrated when Max Schmeling knocked out Louis. He wasn't the worst boxer to come along. He didn't murder anyone, and he didn't **** anybody, but he was a huge jackass and a very selfish human being.

 

He also looked pretty freaky.

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Maybe.

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I think Johnson did more to harm other blacks than he did to help them. He was far too arrogant with his views and behaviours for the times he lived in.

 

He was "ego" pure and simple.

 

Cheating on his women, smiling in public. Making fun of people who refer to him as ape, inferior, or beast; and relishing the victory in front of a crowd of similar people. What an *******. How dare he be so defiant to Whitie. Doesn't he know he was supposed to bow down, and be greatful to these biggots?

How dare he show black people that they don't just have to roll over, and take what white america was giving them? How dare he show that blac people can excel in an area they had previously be forbiden to enter. How dare he show that you could publicly exhibit your skill over people that hate you for the color of your skin? How dare he show that he was human being, with a right to pursue happiness?

"I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro," Jeffries stated this before his match with Johnson. I glad he got his ass whipped, and I'm glad Johnson taunted him throughout.

Johnson was also an intelluctual. He was like a cross between Gene Tunney, and Muhammad Ali(another figher with frequent visits to the ***** aisle). He loved to read, loved music, loved poetry like Tunney. He did not bend to society's pressure, like Ali.

"I'm Jack Johnson. Heavyweight champion of the world. I'm black. They never let me forget it. I'm black all right. I'll never let them forget it."

 

I can understand Johnson's behaviour, but he was also very selfish. For instance, he could've helped his race tons by giving the prominent black fighters title shots. Langford, Jeannette and McVey their careers were screwed because their primes coincided with Johnson's reign. What he did was set back the black people for years and years. Joe Louis did things much smarter and he contributed a lot to black's being able to get title shots after it. Instead of celebrating that, Johnson was childishly jealous and trained Louis' (white) opponents to beat him and was glad when that happened. He did not really stick up for his race, he stood up for himself and himself only.

 

If Sam Langford would've beaten Johnson, won the title from Burns, and went on to defend while ducking Johnson like Johnson ducked him later on, the history of the black athlete in boxing would've changed forever.

Johnson, in many ways, was ahead of his time. It took A LOT of balls to challenge a backwards establishment at that time. I don't fault him for challenging the establishment. However, he went about it in a way that was more detrimental than positive. It was actually destructive, and Johnson himself was quite self-destructive.

I wrote that article on Archie Moore & Charley Burley in 2004, and take back none of it.

 

I agree more with the view that Jack Johnson was a HERO, BRAVE and COURAGEOUS.

The man is a legend.

It wasn't Jack Johnson who was going around lynching black people, brutalizing black people, keeping black people in the lowest position possible in society, denying black people of any rights, mudering, raping, terrorizing imprisoning black people, indoctrinating people in racist and hateful ideology.

No. :nono

It was WHITE PEOPLE who was doing all that. Presidents, politicians, public servants, police officers, sheriffs, the rich and the powerful, and generally any whites who opportunistically or ignorantly propped up the system that benefit themselves over their black neighbours.

To say "Jack Johnson was too arrogant, too rebellious" is to side with the system that denied freedom and equality to black people.

Jack Johnson may have been an ******* on a personal level, he may have even been a BIGOT himself, he may have even had contempt for his fellow blacks himself, he may have been a selfish, narcissitic individual. BUT SO WHAT ?

What he did, symbolically and actually, was to confront the white man's oppression and PROVE that he, as a black man, did not have to bow down to the white man, did not have to give in to threats and murderous terror, because Jack Johnson viewed himself as a FREE MAN, and he lived his life as a FREE MAN.
And that's still what y'all seem to have a problem with !

 

Well put Sonny's jab.

 

Sonny, I was beginning to think I was the only one around here to see this. Thanks for chiming in.

 

Yes, I think Sonny nailed this.

Ali conducted himself in the vein of Johnson, not Louis, and, in doing so, illustrated what a man has to do to set himself and his people free.

Regardless of the political situation around you, you must be true to yourself. Johnson, as imperfect as any man, was, and, by dint of developing his skills as a boxer and persistence in challenging for the heavyweight championship, finally broke the color barrier and used his opportunity well.

Ali took it one step further and also used his self-determination to be his own man, but, in addition, spoke out in favor of blacks, against racism, regardless of personal consequences, and eventually the political situation of his time bore him out to be right. He shed what he considered a slave name, refused to fight what he considered an unjust war, spoke up compellingly for the black man's inalienable rights, and the world was forever changed because of it.

Blacks learned a positive self-image from Muhammad Ali, something new, and, for better and sometimes worse, it can be seen in the huge salaries commanded by a myriad of black athletes, Will Smith strutting his stuff on the silver screen, and, as George Foreman once said, just the average black kid looking in the mirror and saying, "I know I look good."

Jack Johnson, with his in-your-face attitude in a much cruder time, was the imperfect prototype, but, as Ali himself marvelled, he did it all alone.

 

I often think of Johnson as the architypal anti-hero.

He was reckless. He was selfish. He left a trail of destruction everywhere he went.

Yet still he is a person that we identify with and admire. When he falls we weep for him.