In his book Masculinities, R. W. Connell suggests, True masculinity is almost always thought to proceed from men's (45). By mid-nineteenth century, as sports gained more acceptance from middle class, the idea that a man who was moral and devout could and should also be physically fit tied in very well with prevailing middle-class values and new sports creed (Riess 179). Although scholarship about manliness and male body of nineteenth century has primarily focused on white men, by examining careers of two late nineteenth-century black sparring professors, prizefighters Peter Jackson and George Dixon, and how press responded to their lives, I argue that black men also understood connections between their bodies and manhood and used physicality to assert equality. During antebellum period, black sparring professor John B. Bailey, who lacked federal citizenship, positioned himself in physical culture movement to prove his middle-class fitness for manhood rights. Bailey's gym contributed to thought that ideal middle-class body, slender yet muscularly toned, was a clear sign of discipline, self-control, and a well-balanced man. By 1880s, however, preferred manly body was brawny and required physical bulk and well-defined muscles developed for manly competition in life (Bederman 15). Middle-class men to find this rough working-class masculinity powerfully attractive (17). This new interpretation of manly body gave black prizefighters an avenue to assert and prove their manliness across race and class lines. Although black leaders in antebellum period accepted sparring professors as equals and believed they helped advance race, black newspapermen at first struggled with meaning of black prizefighters and their impact on race. Yet as boxers won national acclaim, race leaders started to assert that fight type of professional pugilist could change black Americans' fortunes and prove equality for racial advancement. Antebellum Black Professors and Physical Culture Movement The American physical culture movement began in 1840s as a way for middle-class men to combat negative effects of America's growing cities. Previously, most middle-class men shunned sports because they believed that leisurely athletic pursuits distracted a man from his responsibilities, keeping him from being an independent producer and provider for his family, which was thought to be true hallmark of citizenship and manhood. However, noting that urbanization had also resulted in an increasing crime rate and unhealthy cities, a number of middle-class men worried that realities of urban living jeopardized their manhood and America's national standing. In order to battle changes of urban America, specialists advocated exercise to protect body and prescribed activities such as calisthenics, fencing, walking, rowing, and sparring. According to sport historian Steven Riess, outdoor physical exercise and sport would be socially functional activities that could counter growing urban pathology and social anomie. Such sport and exercise would promote good health, sound morals, and a decent character (174). Scholar Anthony E. Rotundo notes, Before Civil War, athletics was seen as a form of physical culture that strengthened body, refreshed soul, and increased a man's resistance to luxury and vice (239). After visiting Peyton Stewart's Boston gymnasium, for example, editor of Prisoner's Friend, a journal dedicated to reforming criminals and preventing vice, told his readers, [O]ur young men and women should visit this institution. A little judicious exercise here would save many a one a doctor's bill. To our young men it is invaluable. Here they may spend their evenings in a social way, and in improvement of health (Spear, Gymnasium, 1853). The journal also encouraged parents to be proactive and prevent their children from falling into lives of criminality by enrolling them in gymnastics. …