Jack Johnson, the first modern African American heavyweight boxing champion of the world, served as a lightning rod for the racial turmoil of the early twentieth century. Johnson won the heavyweight title in 1906 and then defeated a series of "Great White Hopes," culminating in his epic match with ex-champion Jim Jeffries which was billed from the start as a battle between the "The Hope of the White Race vs. The Deliverer of The Negroes." The implications of Johnson's ensuing easy victory frightened many white Americans, inspired many black Americans, and upset the understood racial hierarchy of Victorian America.

One of six children, Arthur John Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas in 1878. Johnson lived a tough childhood and dropped out of school after receiving five or six years of elementary education. By the mid-1890s, Johnson earned a living by working a variety of jobs...