Tony Isabella (2:06 PM on Wed Oct 8, 2008)

I've been looking forward to this ever since Trevor told me about it a few years ago. This is very powerful stuff and it lives up to my high expectations.

Tony Isabella (2:09 PM on Wed Oct 8, 2008)

I've been looking forward to this ever since Trevor told me about it a few years back. This is very powerful stuff and it lives up to my high expectations.

Russ Rogers (5:32 PM on Wed Oct 8, 2008)

Johnson's 1913 conviction had nothing (directly) to do with his bi-racial marriages. Johnson's first wife shot herself. Some say this was because she was depressed and couldn't deal with society's condemnation of her interracial marriage to Johnson. I've also read that it was because she couldn't deal with traveling around the country with Johnson's two mistresses. Johnson would put them up in separate hotels in the same city.

From: http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/2841/johnso...

"Etta was never happy with that passion-by-appointment arrangement, but after several clouts to the head, she learned to mask her displeasure."

OK. So the Original Mrs. Johnson commits suicide and in his "grief" Johnson hires an 18 year old stenographer, Lucille Cameron-Falconet, and begins to have an affair with her. The girl's mother accuses Johnson of kidnapping. “He has hypnotic powers,” said Lucy's mom, “and has used them on my little girl. I’d rather see my daughter spend the rest of her life in an insane asylum than see her the plaything of a nigger.” Johnson is tried under the Mann Act, but Lucy refuses to testify! The case is dropped and Johnson and Lucy marry. This is less than a YEAR after his first wife killed herself.

OK, so Belle Schreiber had been one of Johnson's "traveling companions" during his first marriage. Belle had wired Johnson, asking for money. He sent her $200 and Belle had gone from Pennsylvania to Chicago, where she spent several nights showering him with gratitude. When Police found her later, working in a D.C. brothel, they used this story to try Johnson AGAIN under the Mann Act. This was two years after his first trial, around 1914. Belle testified against Johnson, possible to avoid prosecution as a prostitute, possibly because she was miffed at getting passed over for being Mrs. Johnson II.

So, Johnson was convicted under the Mann Act, after being tried a second time. But his conviction had nothing (directly) to do with his interracial marriages.

Jack is convicted. Instead of going to jail, Jack and Lucy skip town. They travel to Europe. Jack loses his title in Cuba. Finally Jack returns to the States in 1920. He's taken into custody and spends 11 months in prison. In 1924, Lucy divorces Johnson on grounds of infidelity. Less than a year later, he's married again to Irene Pineau.

Johnson had gold capped front teeth. He was very proud of them. He was famous for flashing his golden smile, partly because it was an outward symbol of his own affluence. Personally, I made the association with gansta grills, but that might be my own racism rearing it's ugly, reptilian head. Johnson may have been a self educated, well read man, fluent in three languages. There seems to be evidence that he was also an unrepentant philanderer, a womanizer, who consorted with prostitutes and was possibly a wife beater. I can give Johnson points for taste and style. But seriously, I can't say that a wife beater who traveled about with prostitutes is all that classy.