Joe gans biography
•
Joe Gans’s rise from orphaned and hard-working Baltimore Harbor oyster shucker to becoming the first African American to hold a world boxing title in is remarkable. He arguably was the first Black person to break the color barrier in any American professional sport. [2] Black and white Baltimorean press coverage of his story reveal the city’s social tensions at the turn of the twentieth century. Black Baltimoreans rallied around Gans. However, concerns about respectability meant the Black press did not favorably cover his story while he was alive. He faced harsh prejudice from powerful white Baltimoreans, who felt threatened by the race and gender implications of his boxing successes and tried to ban interracial matches. Gans’s story generated substantial white moral panic about race, gender, and class. He also established shared spaces for building middle- and upper-class Black and interracial community, most notably Baltimore’s Goldfield Hotel. Unfortunately, his death from tuberculosis provides further insights into early-twentieth century Black Baltimorean experiences with structural inequities causing this community to be hit disproportionately hard by the disease. In many ways, Joe Gans’s life is emblematic of Black Baltimorean struggle and achievement around the
•
Joe Gans
•
Joe Gans
About the Book
Joe Gans captured the world lightweight title in , becoming the first black American world title holder in any sport. Gans was a master strategist and tactician, and one of the earliest practitioners of “scientific” boxing. As a black champion reigning during the Jim Crow era, he endured physical assaults, a stolen title, bankruptcy, and numerous attempts to destroy his reputation. Four short years after successfully defending his title in the round “Greatest Fight of the Century,” Joe Gans was dead of tuberculosis. This biography features original round-by-round ringside telegraph reports of his most famous and controversial fights, a complete fight history, photographs, and early newspaper drawings and cartoons.
About the Author(s)
Colleen Aycock, co-editor for the International Boxing Research Organization, was named to the New Mexico Boxing Hall of Fame and is the author, co-author or co-editor of five books on boxing. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Mark Scott, a novelist and former Golden Gloves boxer, lives in Austin, Texas. He is a contributor to other publications on the history of boxing.
Bibliographic Details
Colleen Aycock and Mark Scott
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, appen