That was Jack Johnson. He was always going to live his life his own way. Which meant marrying a white woman–several white women. It meant cavorting with prostitutes, living a really fast lifestyle. Of course, boxing was always socially marginalized anyway. When Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois looked at him, they’d say, “This is a detriment to our race. We’re trying to fight for progress, and this guy is giving us a bad reputation.” But the blacks who were at the bottom of the social pyramid saw a guy who was beating up white people. They lived vicariously through Jack Johnson.
