Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-10
FIGHTERS DRAW COLOR LINE
Sometimes from Prejudice and often
for Convenience.
JEFF, CoRBETT AND FITz DIDN'T
John l.. suIlIvan, Ketchel, Mcfarland,
sharkey, Mccoy and Papke
Among Those who Have
Never Boxed Negroes.

III ~ HlSNNIE VI RAbhAaAus 80 NHg N
icf heavyweight champion Of the world for
a negro. has revived talk by several ring
stars Of drawing the color line" While
some ~pugiiists havB never permitted them
! selves TO fight a colored man, notably John
L. Sullivan. Tom Sharkey, Stanley Ketcheli
( Packy Mcfarland, Kid Mccoy and Bill
others have used the "color line
simply as a matter of convenience and
! lot as a result Of race prejudice.
Many fighters with long ring records
have met negroes on one or two occasions
only then when bouts with them were
necessary to help them advance in point
Of fame and fortuna. The fact that
| George Dixon, Joe Cans and Joe walcott
J held the featherweight. lightweight and
welterweight championships of the world
! respectively for long periods made it i'm.
perative on numerous occasions for white
boxers to cross arms with them.
Jeff Met Several DinEes.
Jeffries says he will not fight the negro
I Johnson because he has retired perma-
nently from the boxing game. jeff also
! declares that Burns never should have al
lowed a colorsd man to fight for the
heavyweight title and that when he (JeffJ
was a champion he firmly drew the line.
But the records show that even Jeffries
fought negro boxers on three occasions
fPeter jackson, Hank Griffin and Bob
Armstrong. Jackson was all in, a physi-
zeal wreck. so TO speak, when Jeff, then
an a~spirant for championship honors,
knocked him out in three rounds,
1t was Billy Delaney, who now says that
his man AL Kaufman never can meet a
! negro. especially johnson, who brought
Jeffries to New York for the first time,
and when Tom o'Rourke's Denox Athletic
I club hung up a purse for Jeff to stop two
men, Bob Armstrong and Steve O'Donnell,
in tcn-round bouts in the same ring, there
was no such prejudiced wall from De-
ilaney. Jeffries weighed all of 25 pounds
then and never had been seen in the east
before. Armstrong was a big black fell
low who had been used by O'Rourke as a
trial horse for Tom sharkey.
Jeffries couldn't stop Armstrong in the
: required limit. and when 1t came time for
him to put o'DonneIl to the test the boiler
Smaker said that his thumb had been
'sprained or broken and that he could not
proceed with the Australian. Jeffries' I'M
pheasant experience with Armstrong prob
ably made him sore on the negro race,
particularly because the crowd guyed him
numerically. and it's also just a chance
that when Jack johnson knocked the day
lights out of Jeff's brother Jack, the big
t~ex-champion saw the handwriting on the
wall.
COrbett and Color Line.
Jim Corbett also drew the color line
l0vhen he held the championship, but there
wasn't a colored heavyweight lin those
idays who could fight a little bit. Joe
:walcott, the Giant Killer, was ready 10
flight Corbett at the drop of the hat, but
tCorbett said:
mo, 1 cannot fight a colored man! 1t
would not be proper while 1 am the cham
ipion!' But before Jim was champion he
fought Peter jackson sixty-one rounds to
a draw.
Bob Fftzsimmons steered clear of negro
,pugilists, although he defeated the Black
Pearl in 1891 and two years ago he per-
united Johnson to Jolt him out of his senses
for a few moments in two rounds. Fitz
always said, however, that a white man
while holding a ring title should never al
low a negro to meet him in the ring.
John i, Sullivan never really fought a
negro. but he was willing to tacle Peter
jackson for a time at least. In fact ar
iticles were signed for a mill. but at the
last moment Sullivan drew the color line
ASullivan's example was pronounced a good
one by persons who do not like the negro
race and also set a precedent, although the
records show that a negro never met a
white man for the title until johnson made
Burns look like an ice wagon.
johnson and the whites.
Johnson has met some notable white
fighters who were not ready to draw the
line at a moments notice. Among then
were George Gardner OF Lowell, who was
beaten by johnson on a decision at the
end Of twenty rounds; Marvin Hart, whC
got a verdict over Johnson at the finish Of
a similar bout; Jack Munroe, the Butte
miner, who had a few minutes in which
20 imagine that he was a real pugilist; jim
Flynn, who was knocked cold in clever
rounds. and FitEsimmons. who was pu
away in two rounds.
Joe walcott met more white men thar
any other negro boxer on record. He wal
under the management OF Tom O'Rourke
a master mind In the handling of p~ugilists
when he met such fighters as Tommy
West. Tom Tracey. Mike Harris. Dicl
o'Brien. Austin Gibbons, Kid Lavlgne
Mysterious Billy Smith, George Green, Xxi,
Mcfarland. Australian Jim Ryan, DaI
Creedon, Charley johnson, Dick Moore
Joe Choynski. Bill Hanrahan, George Gard
,ner. Kid Carter. Philadelphia Jack o'Brlen
billy Melody, Jimmy Gardner. Mike Dono
a and others.
Joe Cans. former lightweight champio,
OF the World also raced numerous whit
;pugilists of note, including Young Critic
lDal Hawkins. Mike Leonard. Stanto
Abbott. Kid MCFARLAND, Jack DAILY, Spide
Kelly. George McFadden. Billy Ernst. spik
Sullivan. Frank Emo, Terry McGoverT
Martin F1aherty, Willie Fitzgerald. Jane
Britt. Mike (rwin) Sullivan. Willie Lewis
Harry Lewis, Spike Robson. Rudolph In
hole and Battling Nelson.
Many Meet Hut One.
Abe Attell, the American featherweigh
champion has met but one negro-Dlxor
They fought two draw battles, one OF te
rounds and another Of twenty. while
a third encounter Attell won on a decisio
IN fifteen rounds.
Philadelphia Jack o'Brien has tackle
many colored boxers. including Bobb
Dubbs, Young Peter jackson. Frank Grail
the Harlem Coffee Cooler. Wolcott. Georl
Byers. Joe Butler. Dixie Kid, Black Hi
Larry Temple. Morris Harris and JAG
Blackburn.
Cans is the only dusky fighter that Bri
and Nelson have ever met. while McGo'
ern's sole colored opponent was Dixon. fro
whom Terry Wrested the featherwelRl