Jack Johnson

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson was the first great black heavyweight boxing champion. His career connected him to San Francisco many times, including a stint in the county jail in 1911 while he was the heavyweight champ.

Johnson was no stranger to San Francisco boxers and jail. Early in his career (2-25-1901), Johnson fought a small, Jewish heavyweight boxer named Joe Choynski. Choynski was from San Francisco. Choynski knocked out Johnson in the third round and then they both were promptly arrested by Texas Rangers and taken to the Galveston jail. Boxing was a crime in Texas. They were held there for 12 days, holding sparring sessions for small crowds that Sheriff Henry Thomas allowed in for a fee.

Jack & Joe in Galveston Jail February 1901

Photo: Rosenberg Collection, Galveston Museum

1910 Tobacco Card

Johnson became the Heavyweight champ in 1908 when he defeated Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. In 1909, Johnson signed for 2 fights in San Francisco, or more accurately, Colma. Johnson stayed and trained at a place called the Seal Rock House, a hotel down the hill from the Cliff House. When he wasn’t training, he would often race his car through Golden Gate Park, where he picked up more than a few speeding tickets.

One day Johnson even pulled his car, a Thomas Flyer, into the front of a civic parade down Market Street. He was arrested and briefly detained for the stunt. (Unforgivable Blackness, Geoffrey Ward, p. 164.) The incident happened around October 20, 1909. The parade was the 150 Anniversary of Don Gaspar de Portila’s discovery of the Bay in 1769.

1910 Tobacco Card

No fighters could come close to beating Johnson, so former Heavyweight Champ,

Jim Jeffries, was coaxed out of retirement to become “The Great White Hope.” The fight was scheduled for July 4th, 1910, to be held in specially constructed pavilion at 8th & Market

in San Francisco.

The death of Tommy McCarthy revived a lagging campaign to outlaw boxing as barbaric and uncivilized. A nationwide campaign against boxing was mounted, with a distinct focus on stopping the heavyweight championship fight between Johnson and Jeffries.

On April 29, 1910, a boxer named Tommy McCarthy died in

San Francisco after a well publicized prize fight. Johnson arrived in

San Francisco the next day.

Jack Johnson again set up a training program at the Seal Rock House. Johnson did his road work on a circuit that went south on Ocean Beach, east on Sloat Boulevard, north on Nineteenth Avenue and then back to the beach through Golden Gate Park. (Hometown San Francisco, Jerry Flamm, p. 76).

The controversy over boxing intensified and there was a strong possibility that California – and San Francisco – would lose out to New Orleans in the quest to host the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Ultimately California Governor James Gillett caved under the pressure and outlawed boxing in California on June 15th, only three weeks before the big fight.

The fight was moved to Reno and became one of the most storied boxing matches of all time. Johnson knocked out Jeffries, The Great White Hope, in the 15th round on July 4, 1910.

Photo: bioscope.wordpress.com

Johnson fought no one in 1911, but took the time to travel around, make public appearances and get married (again). In March, Johnson, with his wife, three cars and several friends, came to San Francisco to avoid the midwestern winter. He rented an eight room cottage at 47th and Kirkham Avenues. (Unforgivable Blackness, p. 256)

He had been in San Francisco for three weeks when he was arrested again for speed racing through Golden Gate Park. Johnson was given a court date, but failed to appear. On March 25, Judge A.B. Treadwell sentenced Johnson to 25 days in the county jail, not only because of his failure to appear, but because of Johnson’s previous arrests for speeding in San Francisco more than a dozen times.

Jack Johnson was finally sent to jail on March 28, 1911. He was sentenced to 25 days in the county jail for his habitual speeding arrests. He and his lawyer tried almost every trick in the book to avoid the jail sentence.

His sentence was imposed by a Police Court judge. His lawyer filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court, arguing that the Police Court had no jurisdiction over arrests made in Golden Gate Park. When this failed, the lawyer appealed to Court of Appeal and then to the California Supreme Court. When all of these legal challenges failed, Johnson attempted to get released by the County Parole Board, which was composed of the District Attorney, the Sheriff and a judge. Johnson was turned down there, too.

While in jail, Johnson was assigned to clean the jail’s horse stables. He was not made to wear the traditional striped uniform because “the county jail has no striped trousers that are big enough to fit the negro bruiser. He wears overalls.” (Examiner, 4-3-1911)

He also didn’t eat the jail food. He first complained to the District Attorney about the beans and coffee at the jail. According to the Examiner, District Attorney Fickert replied, “That’ll do you a world of good. You need to reduce your weight.” (Examiner, 4-2-11) So, according to a news account, “Johnson’s white wife brings his meals from the outside.” (Examiner, 4-3-11)

One jailer complained, “It is a shameful thing, the privileges this negro is given in the county jail. He is permitted to just as he pleases.” (Examiner, 4-3-11) This kind of “out of school” talk did not amuse Sheriff Tom Finn. “I would like to talk with the guard who declared that Johnson is allowed to do as he pleases out here. I think that Johnson will serve his term and that we will not have any trouble with him for speeding in the future.” (Examiner, 4-4-11)

The Champ did the full twenty five days in the old Ingleside Jail, from March 28 through April 22, 1911. He spoke with a reporter on the day of his release and did not completely agree with Sheriff Finn’s assessment. A defiant Johnson stated, “I think I will drive as fast as ever. I have never hurt any one. I will drive as usual.”

(Examiner, 4-23-11)

Although Johnson had fought in San Francisco (or Colma) seven times and elsewhere in California another 10 times, he never fought again in California after his stint in the San Francisco jail.

His love of automobiles and driving fast, however, never left him. He was arrested for speeding several other times in different cities, although never jailed for more than a few hours in any of those cases.

A fast car proved to be his undoing in the end. On June 9, 1946, the 67 year old Johnson and a friend were driving through North Carolina, headed back to Texas. After being refused regular service in a Raleigh diner, an angry Johnson got behind the wheel of his Lincoln Zephyr and shot out of town at over 70 miles per hour. He lost control of the car rounding a curve and confronting an oncoming truck. He slammed into a telephone pole and died at a hospital a few hours later.