A word to the black man # 1554

Caption from poster__   A word to the black man Do not point your nose too high Do not swell your chest too much Do not boast too loudly Do not be puffed up Let not your ambition be inordinate Or take a wrong direction Remember you have done nothing at all You are just the same member of society you were last week You are on no higher plane Deserve no new consideration And will get none No man will think a bit higher of you Because your complexion is the same Of that of the victor at Reno --Los Angeles times July 5, 1910     The excerpt above is an editorial piece written a day after Jack Johnson defeated James Jeffries in a boxing match for the heavyweight championship of the world or was it 100 years later as Barack Obama defeated Senator John McCain and became the first black President of the United States?   What was so significant about the match was that Johnson was black, and Jeffries was white. “De- feated” is actually a kind way to describe the match. To put it frankly he