Before Joe Lewis and Jackie Robinson , Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight champion of the world, was a beacon of hope for a struggling race. He was fighting with Ida B. Wells and Fredrick Douglas and against Booker T. Washington. Wells and Douglas wanted equal rights and no segregation, Washington was content with segregation for the foreseeable future.
Johnson’s first fight against a white man, Joe Choynski, they both were arrested. They spent 23 days together in jail. Choynski taught Johnson the ins-and-outs of boxing while in jail. Johnson became unbeatable after his stay in jail.
Johnson was brash, cocky and vociferous in the early 1900s when an average 150 African Americans were lynched a year, the race didn’t become loud and proud until the 1960s.
He was Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Terrell Owens and Dieon Sanders all wrapped into one. Johnson also loved white women and white women loved him, white men hated him. I’m surprised, the whites didn’t lynch Johnson. He was fearless, unbeatable and awesome.
Johnson would travel openly with white women. He spent nearly every dollar he made instantly. Jack Johnson gave the middle finger to all white people by being too good and too famous, he would beat up
white men and take the white man‘s woman, the ultimate rebel.
Jack Johnson is voiced over by Samuel L. Jackson, the man who seems to find his way into anything good.
Rating: B
This documentary is really good but terribly long, the running time is over three and a half hours.
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