Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

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Srebmun
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Re: Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Post by Srebmun »

Tremendous book, so much information etc. The poop he had to go through is unreal.
jimglen
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Re: Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Post by jimglen »

excellent doc
HomicideHenry
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Re: Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Post by HomicideHenry »

Watched the doc, now am reading the book. I think, however, the doc was slightly anti-white and pro-black, so am hoping the book will be more leveled out.
BroughtonRulesRefuge
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Re: Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Post by BroughtonRulesRefuge »

HomicideHenry wrote:Watched the doc, now am reading the book. I think, however, the doc was slightly anti-white and pro-black, so am hoping the book will be more leveled out.
- The book is better and more balanced, however both were authored in conjunction with each other, the politics of getting a pardon of Johnson's conviction passed by Congress. Still waiting years later.

Papa Jack by Randy Roberts should be read before or after UB to get a pretty fair understanding of the era and JJ. The doc was fun to see with some then unreleased older footage and rare photos, but Burns not a boxing fan with any history and has shown some egregious flaws in his post baseball docs on jazz, boxing, and WW2. It's good stuff he does, but just not the last word on the topics.
HomicideHenry
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Re: Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Post by HomicideHenry »

Almost finished with Ward's novel on Johnson, and have to say I am impressed, especially with the history of Johnson following his loss to Willard. All the big talk of Dempsey/Johnson, Johnson/Wills, was built on pre-arranged agreements and fixes set up by Jack Johnson to make him look like a viable contender again. Johnson, the man, is as I always expected, and my opinion of him doesn't change---still, my thoughts on his early career, puts a new perspective that I didn't conclude to before reading the book.
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