“The Outlook for Pugilism is Black”: Representations of Prize fighter Jack Johnson in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Abstract

When challenger Jack Johnson took to the ring against heavyweight champion Tommy Burns, newspapers across the US quickly cast the bout as a battle between the races. Johnson, an African American, won the battle decisively and began his reign atop the world of prize fighting. This examination of content in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch seeks to inform newspaper coverage of Johnson during his time as the heavyweight champion, and considers the racial attitudes of Joseph Pulitzer and those of his son, Joseph Pulitzer II. The study finds that while the Post-Dispatch acknowledged Johnson as champion and occasionally published dignified photos of the boxer, content became contemptuous after his 1910 victory over former champion James Jeffries. Although the boxers appeared more likely than the newspaper to use racial epithets, the Post-Dispatch published multiple derogatory and racist cartoons of Johnson. Despite the lofty journalistic principles Pulitzer espoused and the perceived historical accuracy of those ideals—a 2016 editorial in the Post-Dispatch stated that Pulitzer “championed racial justice and women’s rights decades before those ideas were popularly held”—history demonstrates a newspaper unconcerned with the sensibilities of African Americans while Johnson reigned as heavyweight champ.