Plaid Ponderings: Thoughts of a Lezz

John Arthur (“Jack”) Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion reining from 1908 to 1915. 

In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes, “for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth.”

Johnson attests that his success in boxing came from the coaching he received from Joe Choynski, who became his cellmate after the pair were arrested for fighting in Texas, where boxing was illegal at the time. 

The aging Choynski saw natural talent and determination in Johnson and taught him the nuances of defense, stating “A man who can move like you should never have to take a punch”.

In 1910, former undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries came out of retirement and said, “I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race… I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all.” 

Jeffries had not fought in six years and had to lose well over 100 pounds to get back to his championship fighting weight. Indeed, initially Jeffries had no interest in the fight being quite happy as he was. But those who wanted to see Johnson ground into the dirt badgered him unmercifully for months, and also offered him an unheard sum of money, reputed to be about $120,000.

The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people, at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno, Nevada. Johnson proved stronger and more nimble than Jeffries. In the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first time in his career, the referee stopped the fight before Jeffries could be knocked out.

The “Fight of the Century” earned Johnson $65,000 and silenced the critics, who had belittled Johnson’s previous victory over Tommy Burns as “empty,” claiming that Burns was a false champion since Jeffries had retired undefeated.

On June 10, 1946, Johnson died in a car crash on U.S. Highway 1 near Franklinton, North Carolina, a small town near Raleigh, after racing angrily from a diner that refused to serve him. He was taken to the closest black hospital, Saint Agnes Hospital in Raleigh. He was 68 years old at the time of his death. 

Barbara Charline Jordan was an American politician and a leader of the Civil Rights movement. She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. On her death she became the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.

Due to segregation, she did not attend The University of Texas at Austin and instead chose Texas Southern University, majoring in political science and history. Barbara was a national champion debater, defeating her opponents from such schools as Yale and Brown and tying Harvard University. She graduated magna cum laude in 1956. At Texas Southern University, she pledged Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She attended Boston University School of Law, graduating in 1959.

Jordan campaigned unsuccessfully in 1962 and 1964 for the Texas House of Representatives. Her persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first African American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body. 

Re-elected to a full term in the Texas Senate in 1968, she served until 1972. She was the first African-American female to serve as president pro tem of the state senate and served one day, June 10, 1972, as acting governor of Texas.

In 1972, she was elected to Congress, the first woman to represent Texas in the House in her own right (the first woman from Texas, Lera Thomas, had been elected after the death of her husband, Albert Thomas). She received extensive support from former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House Judiciary Committee. In 1974, she made an influential, televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of Richard Nixon, Johnson’s successor as President.

In 1976, Jordan, mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter of Georgia, became instead the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. 

Her speech in New York that summer was ranked 5th in “Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th century” list and was considered by some historians to have been among the best convention keynote speeches in modern history.

Despite not being a candidate, Jordan received one delegate vote (0.03%) for President at the convention.

In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from multiple sclerosis. She had difficulty climbing stairs, and she started using a cane and eventually a wheelchair. She kept the state of her health out of the press so well that in the KUT radio documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan, President Bill Clinton stated that he wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Supreme Court, but by the time he could do so, Jordan’s health problems prevented him from nominating her. Jordan later also suffered from leukemia.

Jordan’s partner of close to 30 years was Nancy Earl. Jordan met Earl, an educational psychologist who would become an occasional speech writer in addition to Jordan’s partner, on a camping trip in the late 1960s. Jordan never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation, but in her obituary, the Houston Chronicle mentioned her long relationship with Earl. However, Jordan biographer Mary Beth Rogers, author of “Barbara Jordan: American Hero,” had not confirmed that the former congresswoman was a lesbian. After Jordan’s initial unsuccessful statewide races, advisers warned her to become more discreet and not bring any female partners on the campaign trail.

Jordan narrowly escaped death by drowning in July 1988 when Earl pulled her from their backyard swimming pool. Her death in 1996 was caused from complications of pneumonia.

In Dahomey was a landmark American musical comedy that was the first full-length musical written and played by blacks to be performed at a major Broadway house. 

The story tells of a group of African Americans who, having found a pot of gold, move to Africa and become rulers of Dahomey, which is the present day Benin. 

It featured music by Will Marion Cook, book by Jesse A. Shipp, and lyrics by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The production, produced by McVon Hurtig and Harry Seamon, was also the first to star African Americans James Smith and George Sisay, as well as one of the leading comedians in America at that time, Bert Williams. “In Dahomey” opened on February 18, 1903 at the New York Theater, and ran for 53 performances which was then considered a successful run.

Based on the show’s New York success, the producers of In Dahomey transferred the entire production to England, on April 28, 1903, with a staging at the Shaftesbury Theatre, followed by a provincial tour around England. This was capped by a command performance celebrating the birthday of the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, when it was heralded as “the most popular musical show in London.”

After a year touring England and Scotland, In Dahomey was transported back to New York, where it reopened on August 27, 1904 at the Grand Opera House, and ran for 17 performances. This in turn launched a major forty-week tour across America, playing such cities as San Francisco, Portland and St. Louis, and turning in a profit of $64,000.

During its four-year tour, In Dahomey proved one of the most successful musical comedies of its era. The show helped make its composer, lyricist and leading performers household names. Significantly, the New York Theater production of In Dahomey marked the first full-length African American musical to be staged in an indoors venue on Broadway (following the earlier success of Clorindy in a rooftop setting). Furthermore, In Dahomey was the first black musical to have its score published even though it was published in England, not America.

In Dahomey also marked an important milestone in the evolution of the American musical comedy. The score made use of the “high operetta style” that its composer Will Marion Cook had studied, in addition to using the relatively new form of ragtime in its finale, “The Czar of Dixie.” According to John Graziano, author of Black Theatre USA, it was “the first African American show that synthesized successfully the various genres of American musical theatre popular at the beginning of the twentieth century—minstrelsy, vaudeville, comic opera, and musical comedy.”

Earl Francis Lloyd, nicknamed “The Big Cat”, was the first African-American to play in the NBA, in the 1950-51 NBA season. 

Born April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, Lloyd, a forward known for his defense, played collegiately at West Virginia State College, was selected in the ninth-round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Washington Capitols. On October 31, 1950, Lloyd became the first African-American to play in an NBA game, against the Rochester Royals.

Lloyd led West Virginia State to two CIAA Conference and Tournament Championships in 1948 and 1949. He was named All-Conference three times (1948-50) and was All-American twice, as named by the Pittsburgh Courier (1949-50). As a senior, he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, while leading West Virginia State to a second place finish in the CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship. In 1947-48, West Virginia State was the only undefeated team in the United States. 

Lloyd played in only seven games for the Washington Capitols before the team folded on January 9, 1951. He then went into the U.S. Army before the Syracuse Nationals picked him up on waivers. He spent six seasons with Syracuse and two with the Detroit Pistons before retiring in 1960.

Lloyd played in over 560 games in nine seasons, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward averaged 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Faye Wattleton was the first woman named president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She served as president from 1978 until 1992.

She was the first African-American to serve as president, and the youngest president in Planned Parenthood’s history.

During her term, Planned Parenthood grew to become the seventh largest charity in the country, providing services to four million clients each year through its 170 affiliates whose activities were spread across 50 states.

As of right now she’s the President of the Center for the Advancement of Women and is on the board of trustees for Columbia University.