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

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Truman K. Gibson Jr., to give him the handle he always insisted on, was born in Atlanta the year the Titanic went down, 1912, two years before Joe was born. He grew up in an educated and proud black family in Columbus, Ohio. His parents were articulate teachers prominent in the black community—and not fazed by celebrity of any kind, black or white. His mother, Alberta, had some memorable personal run-ins at their house with W. E. B. Du Bois. He was the renowned black intellectual and commentator who'd stepped into the debate over Jack Johnson's defeat of James J. Jeffries back in 1915. He was also the first black man to earn a doctorate from Harvard (he would ease Truman's father's path into that institution) and a man whose ego was hardly prepared for Alberta's sharp tongue. When he came calling one day and complained he'd only asked for “half a cup of tea,” Alberta handed him back the full cup and reminded him she was a busy woman. “It saves me a trip back to the teapot,” she said. “Take it or leave it.”