Joe Louis Rebuffs Jack Johnson.

Hello,

An interesting and sad read written by the great Joe Louis.


(This handwritten note by Joe Louis was released by his estate last week.)

Jack Johnson, after decades of boasting and white-womanizing and running from the law, thought he was going to bring his fat old ass into my championship camp and take center stage. I told Johnson what my people told him: get the hell away from us. We don’t like your style, we don’t like your mouth, we don’t want your problems and you’re not going to give us any. When he realized he was back on the street, Johnson began calling me Uncle Tom and saying I had a glass jaw and he’d have killed me. I would’ve given him the Schmeling treatment if he’d been around. I really didn’t need to, though. People on Harlem streets more than once punched him for insulting me. I loved hearing that.

Unlike Johnson I wanted a clean image. And I had one. I kind of kept it, too, but some people found out I occasionally roughed up women including Lena Horne. I wasn’t that kind of guy. It wasn’t my fault. It was all those punches. My head hurt and wasn’t working right, especially after years of snorting cocaine. Don’t try that. My nose is on fire all the way to my head and my head knows they’re coming to get me. I won’t let them. I’m blocking the door. I’m covering the windows. I’m sealing the vents. I’ve got to get away. Please help. Let me shake hands in Las Vegas. People in casinos still call me champ. But I’m not planning a comeback. I’m in a wheelchair.





From: http://www.boxing.com/joe_louis_rebuffs_jack_johnson.html

 

So his book Uppercuts: Tales from the Ring isn't very good?

 

Oh, darn after reading this I was thinking of buying it but if the article is a fake I don't think I will.

 

It's a fake even the author says so in the comments section below, oh well my mistake. What I get for not reading the comments. Though the first paragraph does sound a lot like what Louis probably did think of Johnson.