My Life and Battles

About the book

African American historian Gerald Early refers to Jack Johnson (1878 1946), the first African American heavyweight champion of the world, as the first African-American pop culture icon. Johnson is a seminal and iconic figure in the history of race and sport in America. "My Life and Battles" is the translation of a memoir by Johnson that was published in French, has never before been translated, and is virtually unknown. It covers Johnson s colorful life, both inside and outside the ring, up to and including his famous defeat of Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910, in one of the iconic ring battles of the early twentieth century. In addition to the fights themselves the memoir recounts, among many other things, Johnson s brief and amusing career as a local politician and provides portraits of some of the most famous boxers of the 1900 -1915 era