Joe Louic
Joe LouicJoe Louis was born in Alabama on May 13, 1914. He was the son of an Alabama sharecropper, the great grandson of a slave, and the great great grandson of a white slave owner.
He moved to Detroit as a youngster with his mother. He was the first African American ever to achieve lasting fame and star status in the 20th Century. He did so with boxing, he would capture the hearts of millions of American's, both white and black.
This was a time when blacks were being discriminated against, the military was segregated, blacks were not allowed to play Major League Baseball. When he started boxing early in the 1930's hero worship was not achievable in any professional sports, there were none that were able to command the attention away from whites, however that would all change. Joe Louis began his boxing career at the Brewster Recreation Center. In his first amateur bout, Louis was knocked down 7 times, but he rapidly improved over the years, he captured the 1934 National AAU Lightweight Crown and turned to the professional level later in that same year. Louis won his first 27 fights, 23 of them by knockout, beating people of fame like Primo Carnera and Max Baer. His first defeat was against Max Scheming at Yankee Stadium, he was knocked out in the 12th round. This was Louis greatest defeat, and the start of his greatest challenge.
The next few years would be the greatest of times for the " Brown Bomber ", he got his much anticipated rematch with Max Scheming. The thing about Max Scheming was that he was German, so therefore, he was portrayed as a Nazi, and was personally visited in the locker room before the match by the man of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler. Louis' war-time patriotism in a racially divided country made him a symbol of national unity and purpose. Twice he donated his winnings to the military relief funds. He advertised himself even more tot he American Public when he said the U.S. would win World War 2 " because we're on God's side". In front of 70,000 screaming fans...
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