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In 1909 prizefighting was illegal in New York City, but the law was circumvented by private clubs such as Tom Sharkey’s Athletic
Club--the scene of several of Bellows’s boxing paintings. The fighters were made temporary members of the athletic club in
order to make the fight legal. The African-American boxer in the painting is Joe Gans, lightweight champion from 1902 to 1908,
who defended his title several times against white boxers. Jack Johnson, a stevedore from Galveston, attracted national attention
when he defeated white champion Tommy Burns to win the heavyweight title in 1908. After Johnson lost the crown in 1915, the
boxing world ignored potential black champions, in essence informally segregating the sport, until 1937, when African-American
Joe Louis won the heavyweight title. In Texas, however, mixed-race boxing matches were specifically banned in 1933, when a
thirty-eight-year ban on all boxing was lifted. San Antonio boxer “Sporty” Harvey challenged the ban with a lawsuit in 1953,
which led to a 1954 court decision that overturned the ban. For a comparison of the segregation and desegregation of boxing
on the national stage with events in Texas, see “‘There Are Only White Champions’: The Rise and Demise of Segregated Boxing
in Texas,” by Francine Sanders Romero, which begins on page 27 of this issue.
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