Jack Johnson #1435

Caption from poster__     Jack Johnson      Jack Johnson lived as if the Jim Crow system, did not exist.  During the Jim Crow period, African Americans were sometimes beaten for "talking back" to Whites; yet, Johnson spoke to Whites as if he were an equal or a superior.  He reveled in his riches and fame. And, at a time when African Americans were imprisoned, even lynched for flirting with White women, Johnson openly dated White women and married three White women.  In 1908 and for at least another decade, Jack Johnson was one of the most hated men in America.  He was White America's worse nightmare: a menacing black "brute," profligate, arrogant, immoral, and a threat to everything white.  Thus, began the search for a "Great White Hope," a White man to defeat the Black menace.   James J. Jeffries, a former champion, came out of retirement to fight Johnson, but the fight was a mismatch.  Johnson beat him easily on July 4, 1910.  Nineteen people were killed in race riots across the cou