His undefeated streak ended on Jwhen Schmeling detected a chink in Louis' armor: Because Louis carried his left hand low, he was vulnerable to a counter right. Louis won his first 27 fights, 23 by knockout, with his most impressive victories being a sixth-round TKO of Primo Carnera and a fourth-round KO of Max Baer, both former heavyweight champions. They included: Never be photographed with a white woman, never gloat over a fallen (read white) opponent, never engage in fixed fights, and live and fight clean. To shape the fighter's image, Roxborough publicized seven commandments, which would be inoffensive to white Americans. Roxborough and Julian Black, a speakeasy owner who also ran numbers, convinced Louis to turn pro in 1934, and they became his managers. Joe was learning cabinet-making in a vocational school and taking violin lessons when he turned to boxing at the request of a schoolmate.įighting under the name Joe Louis, so his mother wouldn't find out, he won 50 of 54 amateur bouts and gained the attention of John Roxborough, king of the numbers rackets in Detroit's African-American neighborhoods. The children slept three to a bed in Alabama before the family moved to Detroit in the 1920s. His father was committed to a state hospital for the mentally ill before he was 2.Īfter Louis' mother heard her husband had died (he hadn't, though), she remarried. Besides being African-American, he also was part Indian and part white. He was born Joseph Louis Barrow on May 13, 1914, in a shack in the cotton-field country near Lafayette, Ala. Though married four times, including twice to his first wife, he discreetly enjoyed the company of both African-American and white women, including Lena Horne, Sonja Henie and Lana Turner. With his powerful left jab, his destructive two-fisted attack that he released with accuracy at short range, and his capacity for finishing a wounded opponent, the 6-foot-1½ fighter defeated all 25 of his challengers, another record. His championship reign, from 1937 until he retired in 1949, is the longest of any heavyweight. He also was a credit to boxing, which often contributes to the worst in the human race. When some called Louis "a credit to his race," sportswriter Jimmy Cannon responded, "Yes, Louis is a credit to his race - the human race." His uncommon sense of dignity, exemplified by his refusal to be pictured with a slice of watermelon, increased his popularity. While some accused Louis of being an Uncle Tom, others realized it wasn't in his training or character to be militant. would win World War II "because we're on God's side." He endeared himself even more to the American public when he said the U.S. Twice he donated his purse to military relief funds. Louis' war-time patriotism in a racially divided country made him a symbol of national unity and purpose. When "The Brown Bomber" avenged his loss to Germany's Max Schmeling - viewed as a Nazi symbol - the entire country celebrated, not just African-Americans. Louis, on the other hand, converted all into his corner. Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champ, wasn't popular with whites. Louis was heavyweight champion of the world in an era when the heavyweight champion was, in the minds of many, the greatest man in the world. "By winning, he became white America's first black hero." "What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black," said his son, Joe Louis Jr. When he started boxing in the 1930s, there were no African-Americans in positions of public prominence, none who commanded attention from whites. In a time when his people were still subject to lynchings, discrimination and oppression, when the military was segregated and African-Americans weren't permitted to play Major League Baseball, Joe Louis was the first African-American to achieve hero worship that was previously reserved for whites only. Joe Louis, in the far right corner, floored Max Schmeling three times and won their much-publicized Jrematch at Yankee Stadium in a first-round knockout. The son of an Alabama sharecropper, great grandson of a slave, great great grandson of a white slave owner became the first African-American to achieve lasting fame and popularity in the 20th century. Joe Louis named SportsCentury athlete No.
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