January 17, 2005

Unforgivable Blackness:: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, the "African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World." Just picked this up on my TV listing. A PBS documentary by Ken Burns. "Johnson's story is more than the story of a tremendous athlete, or even one who broke a color line," said Ken Burns. "It is the story of a man who forced America to confront its definition of freedom, and that is an issue with which we continue to struggle." Happy MLK Day.

posted by worldcup2002 to boxing at 02:52 PM - 5 comments

Thanks for the heads up- I look forward to watching this on the west coast.

posted by hincandenza at 08:47 PM on January 17, 2005

Saw more than half of it tonight. Great film about race relations and sports. Told a story we unfortunately don't here a lot about, which is sad because Jack Johnson was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

posted by Bonkers at 10:10 PM on January 17, 2005

That post should have said "first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World." I'm such a dope.

posted by worldcup2002 at 11:43 PM on January 17, 2005

I watched it too...looking forward to the rest of it tonight. I flipped over to CNN after it was over and caught the end of MLK's I Have a Dream speech.

posted by mbd1 at 09:27 AM on January 18, 2005

Mike Wilbon's been pimpin' this on PTI -- he called it "required viewing in every locker room in America."

posted by mrflip at 12:16 PM on January 19, 2005

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