Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78436 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Observer, 4 Dec 2005
'probably the finest book on the uniquely talented and horribly hounded black heavyweight champion...Johnson was a remarkable man'.

The Daily Ireland, 15 December 2005
'Great subject, great book'.

Jon Hotten, Scotland on Sunday, 1 January 2006
'a delicious detail on almost every page...Research this powerful gives Unforgivable Blackness a richness that rewards contemplative reading'

Customer Reviews

A real page-turner...
This is a very insightful, easy-to-read biography of one of boxing's most colourful champions - a man determined to live his life his way, regardless of the consequences.

By the end of the book, you can't help but feel a real sense of admiration for Johnson, as well as a sense of how unjust American society was back in the early 20th Century when he was in his prime. Includes a fine selection of well-researched photographs of the champ's life and times.

Buy this book - you'll not be disappointed...

Racism+prodigious spending = disaster
Before reading this I had never heard of Jack Johnson. As far as I was concerned the era of black heavyweights began with Joe Louis. Johnson was what might be called "a character"; in the modern era this would be endearing but in the 1910's this was dangerous for any black person. Any vaguely arrogant comment by Johnson was magnified and misrepresented whereas his white opponents and their managers could get away with using language even Goebells would have balked it. When push came to shove though, Johnson was head and shoulders above any other fighter at the time and was therefore avoided by his white opponents who argued the case that mixed race bouts should not be allowed (the real reason being that they would probably lose). Johnson sowed the seeds of his own destruction, however. A spendthrift (he famously spent the prize money from one of his bouts in under 48 hours) and a proclivity for white women of ill-repute unleashed a tidal-wave of racist victimisation which led to jail and his own impoverishment.
It is difficult to think of a modern day sports icon with a story like this, only the self-destructive Tyson and Gascoigne come close. Get this book and immerse yourself in the life of a true American legend.

A knockout
Jack Johnson was one of the most charismatic figures of twentieth century America. In 1909, at a time when the colour bar ran marrow-deep through every aspect of America's national identity, he achieved a feat that remains incredible to this day - he became the first black man to win the world heavyweight title. Clever, articulate and blessed with possibly the best boxing skills the division had ever seen, he lived his live the way he wanted to; and not within the parameters set for him by racist convention. He consorted with white women, drove fast cars and revelled in the fact that the title of world champion - preserve of white America (even our own Bob Fitsimmons - statistically Britain's first heavyweight champion had to become an American citizen before being allowed to relieve Jim Corbett of the crown) was worn around the waist of a black man. In doing so he inspired hatred and admiration in equal measure, even black America was divided; some rejoiced in his success, others felt his behaviour was detrimental to America's fragile race relations. Geoffrey Ward's book is an exhaustively researched portrait of Johnson. Eventually hounded into exile and later imprisoned on inflated charges, his rise and fall is covered with great detail and sensitivity. This is an excellent book for sports fans and social historians alike. Highly recommended