Black History Unknown Fact: Jack Johnson

You might know Jack Johnson (1878-1947) as the first black heavyweight champion of the world (1908-1915), but did you know he also patented a wrench in 1922? However, Johnson is known more for his boxing abilities, and for all the controversy he caused back in the day, than he is for his patent.

Can you believe that because he beat a couple of white boxers, riots soon followed through-out the United States? Some were celebration “riots” by blacks, while the whites tried to stop the celebrations, and in fact, police intercepted some lynchings. It’s hard to even imagine this. But someone once told me that in order to understand history, you have to see it through the eyeglass of the time. Johnson was known for his love of white women, in fact, he married 2 white women in a time white and black marriages were illegal in many states. When he married his second wife, he was forced out of the country, when two ministers in the south recommended Johnson be lynched.

In 1920 Johnson returned to the US and opened up a club in Harlem and sold it 3 years later to a gangster Oweny Madden who later renamed the club to “The Cotton Club.” Johnson had a few fights in Mexico and later returned to the US to only be arrested for “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.” He did one year in the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth. It was in prison when he came up with the idea of a tool to help tighten loosening fastening devices, the wrench. Several proposals to grant Johnson a posthumous Presidential pardon have been requested, the latest being one to President George W. Bush. This one has passed the House, and a companion bill is going through the Senate.

Black History Jack Johnson