Amazing story about an incredible human being! As I grew up in Arkansas, I'm familiar with Little Rock's history of race travesties, but I hadn't heard about "the time all the white people lost their mind over Jack Johnson in 1910."
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It is a great story, so much so I could only tell it in two parts, the second part being not so happy a tale of course .... As your in Arkansas can you punch Bill Clinton on the nose for me! 👊🏻
I moved away from there about a year ago. Beautiful state, but seriously corrupt.
I did a little research on Jack Johnson and the riots and...wow. 90 years after people were killing black men just because a black man won a boxing match, the state was celebrating Jermain Taylor representing them as a boxer in the Olympics. Sad. But not as sad as the shameful way Mr. Johnson died. Racism sucks.
Your definately right about that, I always think a better term is 'ignorance' though and thats why I believe that some of the sports stars ... Ali, Jessie Owens and Mr Johnson did more for race relations than MLK or Malcolm could do, simply because sports relates to every human on the planet and reaches more souls than intellectualising ever does.
In some places, and I include Arkansas among them, the ignorance is willful. At least among the older generations, who don't mind people of color being a source of entertainment, but would never invite them over for dinner. Fortunately, those people are dying off and taking their hate with them.