In a new and magisterial work of poetic visual nonfiction, Daoudi and Matejka recreate and dissect one of the most explosively meaningful sporting events in American history. On July 4, 1910, Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, fought Jim Jeffries, retired undefeated former champion now turned into insidious “Great White Hope,” in the sweltering heat of Reno, Nevada, in front of 16,000 fans rooting as much for the triumph of white supremacy as for a boxing championship. Johnson, a giant Black man of imperious bearing and devastating boxing skills, silenced a stadium animated by vicious anti-Black chants, beating Jefferies to his knees in open defiance of American racism, much as he had throughout his life. Indeed the coauthors have created a deft, visually-driven, psychological examination of Johnson’s life. The book bounces back and forth in time, chronicling Johnson’s relentless pursuit of the championship, his love of fast cars and glamorous living, his white wife, and business ventures, in a life defined by a courageous, boldly profane resistance to American racial bigotry during the height of the lynching era and the violent enforcement of Jim Crow racial segregation. In this 14-page excerpt, the reader is introduced to the era and setting, and to the two prizefighters and the powerful racial stakes they’re preparing to fight for. Excerpted from Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century by Youssef Daoudi and Adrian Matejka. Copyright © 2023 by Youssef Daoudi and Adrian Matejka. Used with permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. The book will be published by Liveright Publishing in February.
