Jack Johnson Breaking Barriers Arthur John (Jack) Johnson (1878 -1946) was the first black, and first Texan, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world. Johnson was born in Galveston on March 31, 1878. He was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a former slave and his family was poor. After leaving school in the fifth grade, Johnson worked odd jobs around South Texas. He started boxing as a sparring partner …
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…Johnson, who loved to race fancy cars, died as the result of an automobile accident near Raleigh, North Carolina, in June 1946. The play, The Great White Hope, by Howard Sackler, which was eventually made into a movie starring James Earl Jones, is based on his life. Johnson was admitted to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954. He wrote two books of memoirs, Mes Combats (in French, 1914) and Jack Johnson in the Ring and out (1927; reprinted 1975).