Читать книгу Jacobs Beach. The Mob, the Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing онлайн

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W. E. B. Du Bois, the radical alternative to Washington, said: “Jack Johnson has out-sparred an Irishman. He did it with little brutality, the utmost fairness, and great good nature. He did not knock his opponent senseless. Apparently he did not even try. Neither he nor his race invented prizefighting or particularly like it. Why then this thrill of national disgust? Because Johnson is Black.”

Du Bois was shaky on the boxing facts, and on the money with the social consequences. It would be well into the Great Depression before another black man would be in position to challenge the white man's stolen supremacy as the best heavyweight in the world.

Roxborough knew his history, all right. That's why, as a businessman, he would do whatever it took to get Joe his shot. It might not seem that savory from a distance, but he had to deal with the prevailing morals and attitudes of the day.

It was his good fortune to be doing business with Jacobs at just the time Uncle Mike was rising to the top of his profession, ready to make a move on the big job at the Garden. Johnston's job.