Some Photos Of Jack Johnson

These are from that fine historian Hank Kaplan's archive.

http://hankkaplanarchive.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/155/


There is also revealing comments from Jim Jeffries and Tom Sharkey and the prospects of them boxing coloured fighters.

Sharkey in particular comes across as the dense Gorilla I've always believed him to be.

 

So, what exactly Sharkey's position on fighting Black folks?

The quotes make it somewhat unclear.

 

Well Tom was always careful not to offend anyone. Ridiculous as it sounds , I have a suspicion he was a closet racist.

 

Jeffries an sharkey were pieces of ****

 

Tom Sharkey was open about the fact that he drew the color line. He did use black fighters as sparring partners, though.