Kansas City Public Library: Amid A Tide Of Racism, A Legendary Boxer Celebrated A Triumphant Week In Kansas City

Press release from the Kansas City Public Library:

March 4, 2022

Jack Johnson was one of the most famous people in the world in February 1912, having pummeled Jim Jeffries 19 months earlier in the “Fight of the Century” to retain his world heavyweight boxing championship.

“The Galveston Giant,” who had become the first Black heavyweight champion in 1908, raked in thousands of dollars just for stepping on theater stages. He spent just about every dollar on cars, clothes and anything else that supported his lavish lifestyle. Newspaper reporters followed him everywhere, writing about his every step and, especially, his missteps.

In that racist Jim Crow era, the champ was despised and resented by most white Americans, largely because of his affinity for white women. His victory over Jeffries had been met with race riots around the nation, and Johnson was the target of unrelenting death threats and racist attacks.

Meanwhile, the government attempted to do what no white boxer could — take down the brash Black man.

Amid it all, Johnson spent a week in Kansas City — and there were no reports of any violence or disruptions. Quite to the contrary: Johnson was a big hit.

That week was the basis for Stuart Carden’s query to “What’s Your KCQ?,” The Star’s ongoing series with the Kansas City Public Library that answers readers’ questions about our region:

"I have heard that Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion of the world, fought at the Folly Theater. And may have even stayed in an apartment above the stage when turned away from hotels because he was traveling with his white girlfriend. What’s the history of Jack Johnson, Kansas City and the Folly?"

As artist director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Carden has a rooting interest in Johnson’s Kansas City connection. KC Rep’s production of “The Royale,” a drama inspired by Johnson’s story, will open March 8.

The play’s protagonist, named Jay Jackson, is a Jack Johnson clone — flamboyant, outspoken and unapologetic

“The piece both captures the triumph of this man but also the cost that comes along with that triumph,” Carden said.

Kansas City author and historian Phil S. Dixon calls Johnson “the most publicized African American of his era. There’s nobody close, no one close to Jack Johnson. You couldn’t miss this guy.”

Dixon has completed the bulk of a book based on Johnson’s own manuscript, written while he was a prisoner at Leavenworth after being convicted on trumped-up charges of violating the Mann Act. He was accused of transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes.

That episode brought Johnson to Kansas City in 1921 after his release from Leavenworth. He attended a reception here and staged two boxing exhibitions, including one at the Billion Bubble Park baseball stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. Johnson also shot scenes for a movie filmed here.

It was the last of his three boxing-related KC stays (he almost certainly had other visits) over about 25 years, with Kansas Citians seeing him during the nascent stage of his career, at his peak and in his decline.

The first was in 1898. The Star reported on July 20 that Johnson, then about 20 years old, was “open for engagements at 160 pounds against any boxer in Missouri or Kansas” and could be found at “the Olympic club, a colored organization, at Sixth and Grand.” On July 23, The Star noted that Johnson would fight a six-round bout during “a grand athletic carnival and barbecue at the Blue River park.”

Johnson beat Cherokee Tom Cox, who went on to become a well-known trainer, on July 24, 1898, in what was unofficially the future champ’s third professional fight.

Johnson’s Kansas City visit of Feb. 25-March 2, 1912, was his most notable, coming as it did after he beat Jeffries, “The Great White Hope,” a nickname that inspired a Broadway play and 1970 movie.

First, some clarifications about Carden’s query.

The theater was not yet the Folly; it was the Century, after having opened in 1900 as the Standard.

This press release was produced by the Kansas City Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.