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Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson | 
 enlarge | Author: Geoffrey C. Ward
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 453537
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375710043
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.83092
EAN: 9780375710049
ASIN: 0375710043
Publication Date: January 3, 2006
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Product Description
In this vivid biography Geoffrey C. Ward brings back to life the most celebrated — and the most reviled — African American of his age.
Jack Johnson battled his way out of obscurity and poverty in the Jim Crow South to win the title of heavyweight champion of the world. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled simply to exist, he reveled in his riches and his fame, sleeping with whomever he pleased, to the consternation and anger of much of white America. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure prison and seven years of exile. This definitive biography portrays Jack Johnson as he really was--a battler against the bigotry of his era and the embodiment of American individualism.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 JACK JOHNSON July 7, 2008
THIS BOOK PAINTS A REAL PICTURE OF THE LIFE OF A MAN IN A RACIALLY CHARGED TIME IN OUR HISTORY. THE BOOK REMINDS THE READER THAT jACK jOHNSON IS A HERO TO SOME BUT ALSO WAS A VERY REAL HUMAN BEING AND HE HAD VERY REAL PROMBLEMS, AS MANY BOXERS DO.
 Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson March 25, 2008
I first read this book a number of years ago, pursuant to the Ken Burns production on PBS. I purchased a paperback addition, the spine of which broke during a second read; hence, the purchase of the hardback at hand.
Needless to say, I consider Ward's book excellent. I say this both as a piece of general history and as a fascinating view of boxing in its infancy in this country. Johnson was polarizing, but no less interesting and influential. Consider his impact on Joe Lewis, Ali, and Miles Davis.
Thoroughly recommend both the book and Burns documentary on DVD.
Brilliant piece of work September 14, 2007
I thoroughly enjoyed this book on Jack Johnson. The man was the best boxer of his generation and lived his life to the fullest extent outside the ring.
The author has produced a tremendous work that completely looks at the life of the champion and gives a look at the USA in that time. Johnson had to deal with numerous issues in his day and he handled it in a manner that few could.
Well worth reading.
The Baddest of the BAD! See it for yourself, could Clay do this?? February 3, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have made a study of this man and he fought at a time when a referee was basically the guy with the best seat in the house, as there were no such things as "standing eight counts", as a knockdown was the end of the round and this is why Jack Johnson, who started as a much lighter man, and he seriously had an I.Q. of a 4 year old, but, when he hit, the canvas shook!~!~! He was the first...the "VERY first BLACK MAN to be the 'International Heavyweight Champeen of the World' ". He respected no white man, and he showed his disdain by always having beauteous white women on his arms (plural) and he knew that he whipped up a frenzy where ever he went and esp. when he fought. He waited..a long time as NO WHITE man would show his face to get into the ring. The man "James Jeffries", dared to be the man to 'wipe Jack out'..he was called "The Great White Hope", and the whole world wanted the death of Jack Johnson by any white hands..he was that HATED!~!~! But, this man, worked out, not in a gym, like a "ROCKY" movie, He stood all day in the middle of barns as his best accomadations would be for Jack. He had barrells full of rocks (where do you think "Stallone's Barn scene in Russia" came from???) That was Jack Johnson for real, heaving as much as he could heaving and heaving those barrells as much as he could until all he was spent... he was a muscular man who could take your head off as Floyd Patterson did when he was the first "Heavyweight" (at 180 lbs)to regain the world's Heavyweight Crown before Muhammad Ali did it three (3) times!...Back to Jack Johnson...I cannot say much more except that when James Jeffries went down, he had NO HEART to get up..not one more time would he stand before what Jack Johnson called: "Da Hevywate Champeen of da world"! As he kept taunting his manager with that question time and again..."WHEN do I get a try"? So, the day 's temperature was over 100 degrees , if I recollect, and no wind blew, but, Jack entered into the ring first...then the "GREAT White- Hope", James jeffries, with thousands standing in that heat for what seemed as scores of years...and he was the first to leave, heaving the "spit bucket" at the newspress people, as he ran under the ring and on a waiting train...heading for "HIS FORM of GLORY": You shall read it, I know, and you will understand prejudice, hatred, violence in boxing, for it is gone as we see the sport today...this was a day of gladiators...standing, swinging, falling, the opponent standing above his opponent, waiting for a knee to leave the mat, them, again...POW!..before the "ref" even said "get back"!Jack would stalk the dizzy, man falling on the ropes, the mat, almost left the ring a few times..never a count to ten...it was down and out ...that was boxing in the "Glory Days" of the baddest Men in the world, not, greatest, or the hardest left hook, or the fastest jab..that all meant nothing.
What was the value here was round 20, round 30, round 50...and the band beat on! As did Jack Johnson...in HIS lifetime~!~!~!..this must be read by sports heros of today who are covered with padded armor for protection and for millions and millions of US Dollars. Jack walked proudly everywhere, with a pocket of change and died a poor man... Yes, these were the true Boxers of the past..this was the ONE!~!~! The ONE that you'll remember...for a long, long time!~!~!
Rick, "Strings"
A True Icon in the History of Sports August 16, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jack Johnson was no saint, and certainly Geoffrey C. Ward does not defend his vices nor forgive Johnson in his book, "Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson". What Ward does do (with great research and writing) is gather details pertaining to periods in leading up to and between what generally is known as Johnson's triumphs and headlines. Furthermore, he does set the scene of a land not yet ready for Johnson's maverick ways.
You get the early stories of Johnson as a youth and his influential mother who set upon him the idea that he was capable of anything. His days of leaving school for work, to his beginnings in early prizefighting are covered in detail as well as his participation in battle royals which many black fighters of his era too had experience in. These beginnings were the catalyst of the rise and conquering of the most distinguished pugilistic title "World Heavyweight Champion". His style was before any time; a defensive master who toyed with opponents and at times would carry conversations with ringside onlookers.
Johnson and his women were always intriguing and really got him in a pickle with the government. Beyond Jim Crow, blacks acting "uppity" were easy targets to make examples of in judicial or extreme (lynching) measures. Johnson being the most notorious black American of that era certainly was as easy a target for the Anglo-Saxon sentiment. "Lil' Arthur" though was a rebel and lived his life as he chose, his extradition came after a long battle which he did put a good fight. I think to compare him to Ali is incorrect. Ali was unpopular to many, but popular on the flip side as well. Johnson was always looked upon as a threat by a white majority and eventually even looked down upon in disgust by many of his fellow blacks.
His downfall was sad, but all in all Johnson lived his life as good as a black American could in that time. He traveled the world unlike any normal citizen would of and rubbed many known shoulders of his day. It is only tragic that if he were not black, he would have been regarded as the Babe Ruth of boxing.
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