Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner Read online

  Nevertheless, many African Americans retained a special sense of optimism about the promise of freedom and equality abroad. Even as they faced racial violence and persecution at home, they found hope in Johnson's ability to cross borders and to explore opportunities in other nations. Their collective discussions of his overseas travels were part of their ongoing search for spaces of racial equality beyond the reach of Jim Crow. Contemporary debates about the benefits of migration out of the U.S. South addressed the potential for black settlement not only in the northern states but also in foreign places. “The number of dissatisfied and disgruntled colored people in this country is growing daily,” one African American editorialist declared, “and the much heralded freedom from color prejudice of the old world has caused not a few strong and sensible colored men to ponder seriously the question as to whether they should not flee from the color-phobia of these shores.”13

  Still this same editorialist remained loyal to Booker T. Washington's call to “cast down your bucket where you are” and asserted that Europe was no better than the United States.14 He cited Washington's observations on the desperate state of affairs for working people in Europe, published in 1911 as a series of installments in Outlook magazine. Titled “The Man Farthest Down,” Washington's serial argued that the United States was still the best place for the future of black people.15 For two months in the fall of 1910 Washington had traveled in search of the poorest of the poor in England, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Italy, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Denmark. Instead of focusing on the impressive monuments in the capital cities, he investigated Europe's problems of unemployment, starvation, poor housing, primitive agricultural practices, and child labor.

  Washington also claimed that during his trip many African Americans asked for his help to return to the United States since it was next to impossible for black people to find work in Europe. He recalled encountering an African American who had been stranded in London for fourteen months. “It seems to me that all Britain are against the Negro race,” the beleaguered black man had told him. “Some say, ‘Go back to your own country,’ knowing if I had the means I would fly to-morrow.”16 Curiously sidestepping the continued problems of white American racial violence and segregation, Washington declared that because of the United States' free market democracy and class mobility, the average African American was much better off than his poor white counterparts across the Atlantic. Thus “the distance of Europe” seemed to be “almost her only enchantment.”17

  Whereas Washington maintained that the southern Negro was “just as proud to be an American citizen as he is to be a Negro,” not all black Americans had the same kind of faith in the sincerity and inclusiveness of U.S. democracy.18 One African American editorialist complained that Washington had used his European tour to spread false propaganda about the vast improvement in U.S. race relations. “He may succeed in deceiving the English people, but I don't think so,” the writer argued. “He certainly will not if the colored people of the U.S. exhibit one-tenth as much courage, common sense, and ordinary perception as they have patience through all these long years of trial and suffering.”19

  Johnson's arrival in London offered African American journalists a chance to counter Washington's negative views of Europe. The Defender correspondent Russell seized on the possibility that the United States' color line was somehow exceptional among civilized Western nations. He took great delight in describing Johnson's dignified reception at the coronation of England's King George V on 22 June, since it suggested a kind of racial reversal that flew in the face of Jim Crow etiquette. “Jack is the London star, as a coronation visitor,” Russell boasted. “Foreign royalties, Indian potentates and Colonial premiers and white folks from America are all completely overshad-owed.”20 With a satirical touch he maintained, “The anxiety of a meeting between the two noble rulers rests alone with the King as everybody else is blissfully assured that Jack will be able to share in the enjoyment of the ‘Man Higher Up,' as Booker T. Washington was to learn of the condition of the ‘Man Farthest Down.'” Black Chicagoans reportedly feared that their great fighter would move to London for good, joining a group of “colored actors” that had already “settled down in amalgamation row never to return to America.” Following the coronation festivities Johnson became a sellout sensation in London's music halls as he performed boxing routines and musical numbers in front of adoring crowds of British spectators. Moreover, other African American journalists touted the upcoming London meeting of the Universal Races Congress in July as an important step toward better relations between the different peoples of the world.21 It seemed as if England was the place to be.

  From the safety of London Johnson made an effort to publicly embarrass white America and set about courting the support of sympathetic British fans. An Irish correspondent interviewed him at Oxford Music Hall on U.S. Independence Day, exactly one year after his triumph over Jeffries. Johnson took this opportunity to protest the continued oppression of black people in the United States. “I never celebrate for America,” declared Johnson, who also asked, “What has America done for me? Has it ever given me a square deal? Did it give me a shout when I won? Not on your life. Say son, I've given up thinking about America.”22 Johnson even maintained that if an international war ever broke out he would “never shoulder a musket for America,” but would gladly fight for Britain. When the Irish reporter asked if he planned to return to the United States, Johnson replied, “Not until I am forced to, and then I'm coming back as quickly as I can. It is such a fine country—England.” At a time when many African Americans viewed military service as an important marker of full citizenship, Johnson's assertions conveyed a particularly scathing critique of both the conventional wisdom of black uplift and the reality of U.S. democracy.

  Yet Johnson's declaration of English citizenship through military endeavor was not without its own set of problems. The most recent British military invasion was a grab for imperial territory against the Boers of South Africa, and the English also maintained a standing army in India to ensure the efficient exploitation of their “crown jewel.” Johnson's bold vision of himself as a wronged U.S. citizen who could simply shift his allegiance from the Stars and Stripes to the Union Jack seemed to have clouded his ability to see the deep-seated relationship between Jim Crow racism and the mechanisms of European imperialism. Throughout his time in Britain Johnson vacillated between optimism and despair, at times believing U.S. racial politics were exceptional and at other times recognizing they were simply one part of a global system of white supremacy.

  Johnson's many public endorsements of British racial tolerance provoked white American discussions about the appropriate treatment of black people. Instead of interpreting Britain's embrace of Johnson as a challenge to U.S. racial mores, many white Americans viewed it with a sarcastic sense of humor. England's decision to include the black champion in the coronation ceremonies had apparently given Johnson an inflated sense of himself. New York Evening World cartoonist Robert Edgren poked fun at the black champion's pretentious “Anglo-mania,” claiming that Johnson had wasted thousands of dollars on gaudy costumes for the coronation.23 An editorialist for the Washington Post complained, “It would seem as though the vast array of dusky princes drawn from the wide suzerainty of the British Empire to witness the gorgeous pageantry of the coronation, should have been enough to satisfy the British pride without its capturing our own swarthy champion of champions.”24 Britain had let its own hubris get in the way of racial common sense.

  There seemed to be an ocean of difference between U.S. and British racial customs. During his own tour of Europe in 1911, Jim Jeffries had also attended the coronation, and he had openly mocked England's apparent ignorance of appropriate racial conduct. Jeffries described his run-in with Johnson in a London pub named Romanos. As he recalled, “The Smoke came in with all his gold teeth shinin' and glimmerin' in the candle light.” Greeted with affectionate cheers rather than sneers, Johnson seemed right at home in Romano
s, and Jeffries concluded that “all niggers are white to them Englishmen.”25 Johnson had even tried to join Jeffries and the Virginia judge Walter Kelly at their table. “I was standing up at the time,” the retired pugilist explained, “and as he looked my way, I had the pleasure of turning my American back to him.” “The ‘Smoke' knew what that meant,” Jeffries bragged; “he did not linger one little moment.”

  Undeterred by Jeffries's snub, Johnson continued to use the transnational reach of the press to broadcast his grievances with white America. As the Washington Post reported, “He has spoken in no uncertain terms. The glories of America have faded before the wonders of England…. A careful study of England's political form of government, her social system, and her general resources and opportunities, has led to the conviction that a man of his caliber may go far in such a country.”26 Johnson's positive assessment of Britain directly contradicted the main conclusions of Washington's “Man Farthest Down.” His vocal rejection of the United States inspired much criticism in the white American dailies. “We submit Mr. Johnson's defection as a proof of the blessings of reciprocity,” the Post joked. “In letting him go so ungrudgingly we demonstrate to the full our sincerity in advocating the free and unhindered exchange of the best our country can produce. That we should get a duke or two in return may seem something, but it makes small amends for the loss of that golden smile.”

  Despite these attempts to discount the significance of Johnson's British welcome, black Americans continued to ponder the possibilities for greater inclusion and success abroad. Conflicting feelings of hope and disillusionment about Europe as a space for African Americans flowed throughout the black press. After participating in the Universal Races Congress, William Sanders Scarborough, the African American president of Wilberforce University, decided to vacation in Europe. “I have not seen in any instance any evidence of prejudice,” he wrote from Germany. “The burning of the Negro in Pennsylvania is vigorously denounced here as is the malicious shooting of the Negro in South Africa.”27 Scarborough claimed that the only prejudice he and his wife had encountered came from the “cursed” white American tourists.

  That same summer Mark A. Luescher, a promoter of black American entertainers, had spent five weeks in Europe arranging bookings for a musical comedy. “For years Americans have observed that the colored man in England and on the Continent was often received in good society,” Luescher explained. “In the fashionable cafes and hotels one might see a black prize-fighter or vaudeville performer seated at the same table with white patrons.”28 To Luescher's great surprise, he had found new plays featuring black heroes in several European theaters. He maintained that the black man was now “receiving unusual attention” in Germany, where “the police had to be stationed near a certain theater to keep white girls away from the stage door.” Yet he also tempered this heartening discovery with other disturbing trends. Luescher claimed that “the colored man” was no longer “being lionized in England as much as formerly.”

  A racist incident involving twenty African American grooms at the prestigious Royal Ascot horse race in June 1911 appeared to confirm Luescher's observation about the decline of English tolerance. When the U.S. racing team arrived several days early, the tournament officials had to scramble to secure temporary accommodations for the men. While the white American riders had no difficulty finding places to stay, the fate of their black grooms was another story. Originally all of the grooms were to be housed at the Olympia Exhibition Building. However, when English officials discovered that they were black, a vociferous protest ensued and they were shunted to a nearby riding academy. As one African American editorialist declared, this hostile treatment signaled “the spread of race feeling against the Negro,” and he emphasized that black people had become “the object of race hatred both far and near.”29 It no longer seemed to matter “what station in life a Negro may hold, how respectable and law abiding he may be or what fortune he may have amassed,” since he was “never beyond the veil of racial discrimination.” “In the south or in the north, in America or abroad it is ever the same,” the writer maintained. “He is made to feel the ever present racial persecution which it seems is getting stronger and stronger with each succeeding day, and is beginning to assume world wide proportions.” The European travels of black sportsmen provided some of the formative moments in which African Americans began to see the transnational reach of the color line. The growing tide of white Anglo-Saxonism was beginning to dampen their Atlantic dreams.

  WHITE ANGLO-SAXON HOPES

  Even with all of the celebration surrounding Johnson's arrival in London and his grand entrance at the coronation, English boxing fans had never given up on their own search for a white hope. Ever since the renowned U.S. novelist Jack London coined the expression “white hope” in the wake of Johnson's 1908 defeat of Tommy Burns, the public frenzy to dethrone the black heavyweight had taken on a life of its own. Johnson remained undefeated, making a public mockery of the white supremacist theories of social Darwinism and eugenics. “Are things what they seem? Is the Caucasian played out? Where is the white man who will take the conceit out of the big Negro Jack Johnson?” a correspondent for the New York's Morning Telegram lamented. “It seems as if this gross dark throwback stood invincible in the prize ring and defied the world to find a white man who can whip him.”30 Given the abysmal state of Johnson's white challengers, some African American sportswriters boasted that the quest for a white hope would soon be abandoned.31 Yet their prophesies of white resignation never came true. Boxing promoters managed to transform London's original call for a white hope into a veritable industry with products and publicity that flowed across national borders.

  By the summer of 1911 Bombardier Billy Wells had emerged as Britain's main contender for the heavyweight crown. Wells seemed to be the perfect man to conquer the black champion, for he embodied a mixture of Anglo-Saxon civilization and physical vitality. He was anything but a stereotypical professional boxer. Minus the crooked nose, facial scars, and missing teeth characteristic of his contemporaries, Wells was “perhaps the handsomest pugilist of the day.”32 Tall and slim, he resembled an English fiction hero with his skin “as white, as silky, and as glistening as ever.”33

  Regardless of these elegant descriptions, Wells's biography was very similar to that of other British pugs. Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of London's East End, Wells learned to box in his spare time at local boys clubs and missions. At eighteen he joined the Royal Artillery and served in India. After Wells won the army's boxing championship, metropolitan promoters lured him back to England with the promise of pugilistic stardom. Wells himself believed it was his responsibility to come forward and fight Johnson. As he told Boxing, “I seemed to feel the strength creep in upon me; my veins tingled and my heart glowed with a wonderful pride at the thought that I, a British soldier—I, Bombardier Billy Wells—had been selected as the White Hope.”34 Some English sportsmen criticized the twenty-four-year-old novice for putting his, and therefore the race's, reputation on the line against the much stronger and more experienced African American fighter.35 U.S. boxing writers characterized Wells as a second-rate fighter with little likelihood of winning against Johnson.

  Nevertheless, the match promoter James White and British sports editors believed that Wells was a white hope candidate with whom English men and Anglo-Saxons in general could relate. With his military record and dashing looks, Wells would not only fill the stands at Empress Hall in the Earl's Court amusement park, but he would also make brisk business for postfight publications and the fight film. Who better than a former colonial serviceman to put the unruly black champion back in his proper place of subservience? This was a narrative that would surely resonate with the concerns of white men throughout the British Empire and the United States.

  Writing in 1947, the British author Oswald Frederick Snelling looked back on the so-called white hope crisis of the 1910s through the lens of Nazism, pointing to an important link be
tween the racial logics of imperialism and fascism. For Snelling, London's famous phrase embodied the competitive racisms of the 1930s and ’40s: “Today he would be labelled Fascist, and it is almost certain that he would have fanatically followed the doctrines of Adolf Hitler had he lived in these days.”36 Although this comparison may seem particular to the post-World War II reflection on the atrocities of the Holocaust, a closer reading of the white hope crisis as an interimperial discourse on whiteness, manhood, and the body reveals the sharpness of Snelling's critique. The biological analogies of citizenship and the nation honed under Nazi rule had already begun to permeate the mass culture of late imperialism. By Johnson's day the physical fitness of the white male body had become an integral part of the prevailing myths of Western social and political superiority. The expansion of commercialized spectator sports such as boxing was helping to enlist white men—across ethnic and class lines and even across oceans—in the maintenance of Anglo-Saxon geopolitical power.

  FIGURE 8. Framed as a contest between a former colonial serviceman and an unruly black braggart, the Wells-Johnson match resonated with the concerns of white men throughout the British Empire and the United States. Jack Johnson and Bombardier Billy Wells, Boxing supplement, 1911. From the author's collection.