Photo of Joe Jeannette

Was he a part of a racist policy when he drew the colour line? Yes or no? You can take individual moments and reason them away or debate whether he was personally racist in his opinions of black people. But in his actions in drawing the colour line -what do you call that? What is your opinion of the colour line? It was a racist policy designed to exclude people of a certain race and he willingly went along with enforcing it.

Yes it has to be seen in the wider context of the times but that does not mean downplaying it or ignoring it. It also taints his career and especially his title reign. In terms of judgement we all like to think we would do the right thing at times like that. Many people just go along with things even if they disagree. It's easy to critique after the fact but it's also important to describe things accurately.

 

Was Jack Johnson racist against his own people when he drew the color line on black fighters?

The color line was an unfortunate obstacle that was much easier to maneuver about in the lower weight classes. Dempsey was the biggest star in all of sports. If there were riots over a washed up Jeffries losing to Johnson, the probability of riots on an epic scale were quite high if Dempsey lost.

Again, Dempsey didn't draw the color line. He signed contracts to fight Wills, and terms of that contract were broken by the people promoting the fight. Dempsey was also obligated by contract to a manager who told him who he will fight. The fact that Dempsey fought the most dangerous opponent in Tunney after a long layoff tells us he wasn't afraid of anyone, especially Wills, who had already turned down Tunney and lost to Sharkey. On film, Wills was not impressive, and made to order for Dempsey. Dempsey offered Wills a job as sparring partner, which Wills turned down. If Dempsey was afraid of Wills, I highly doubt he'd offer him a sparring partner job where he would risk being shown up or embarrassed.