Joe Louis Biography

He was born on June 29, 1981 in Little Rock, AR. He is the only child of Diane Johnson the most influential person in his life. Played two seasons at University of Arkansas. He also launched the Joe Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit which helped poorer kids and their families. In his freshman season at Arkansas in 1999–2000, Johnson was called SEC All-Freshman team and SEC All-Tournament team after

Joe Jackson had a difficult life before baseball. His family was moved by his father to the Brandon area outside of Greenville, South Carolina. He was the oldest of 8 kids but by the young ages of 6 to 7 Joe Jackson was uneducated and

By 1905, his experience playing baseball in the Mills would earn the eighteen year old Joe enough of a name to be hired by the Green-ville Spinners of the Carolina Association. After a brief stint with the Spinners, Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics drafted “Shoeless” to play on his team. It wasn't until 1911 when Joe Jackson signed with the pelicans that he completed his first full season, setting a record .408 batting average for any other rookie to date. “Shoeless” Joe's need to support his family with what little money he could scrounge through various means opened a career opportunity for him to excel in baseball.

Jack Johnson nicknamed the "Galveston Giant," was an American boxer and arguably the best heavyweight of his generation. He was the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World, from 1908-1915 and became infamous for his interracial relationships with white women. For more than a decade, Johnson was probably the most famous, and certainly the most notorious African-American in the world. Johnson won over 50 matches from 1902-1907 and in 47 years of fighting he was only knocked out three times.

Jefferies constantly denied Johnson a fight and in 1904 they came across each other in a bar and Jefferies told Johnson he would fight him alone in the cellar and bet 2500 dollars but Johnson said he wasn’t a cellar fighter and in 1905 Jefferies retired opening a new gate for Jack Johnson. This pissed off Johnson for he was in need of money and so he hired a manager, Sam Fitzpatrick who helped Johnson earn up to 3000 dollars a night. Johnson was now starting to be openly seen with white women, They were prostitutes and he would take them every where with him, this was done during the time when he was lashing out on the white boxers, one of these prostitutes would be with him for the next 4 years, her name was Hattie McClay.

Joe Louis 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.

Johnson was born August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas on an isolated farm in the Texas Hill Country to Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr. and Rebekah Baines Johnson. His mother was a woman “… who treasured poetry, revered knowledge, and detested anything dirty or shabby …” She wanted to make sure her children received an education.

Joe wanted to break the Pacific Coast league record for hitting in succeeding games (MCSF). On July 4, 1933 they were 10,000 people in the Seals Stadium (MCSF). To watch him try to hit in his forty nine straight game that will break a long standing record (MCSF). In the first inning when Joe singled to center field that’s when he break the record (MCSF). On 1934 he was signed to the New York Yankees (Joe Bio).

Louis was born into a poor family on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, louisiana. He was the grandson of a slave spending his childhood in poverty in a rough neighborhood that was called the battlefield. His dad William Armstrong had abandoned the family when louis was young to be with another women. Then his mother Mayann left him and his sister Beatrice in the care of Josephine, which was his grandmother.

If one was to go out into the street, walked up to a random stranger and asked them if they knew who Louis Armstrong was, chances are that they would be able to answer you correctly. Louis Armstrong (Aug 4th, 1901 - Jul 6th, 1971) was an American trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who became one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned many decades, from the 1920s to his death in 1971, and many different eras in jazz. He first came to prominence in the 1920s as a trumpeter and cornet player with no technique as well as being very skilled in scat singing, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, influencing many later jazz artists as well as shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance.With his very well-known and recognizable gravelly voice, a technique that was later named “crooning”, Armstrong was an incredibly influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser by bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes on demand. Renowned for his charming and incredibly charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet and/or cornet playing, Armstrong 's influence extends far beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the early 1970s at his death, he was widely regarded as a deep and profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first very popular

Johnson followed Jeffries from town to town. “Jeffries, however, refused to fight a black boxer and instead decided to retire undefeated.”(Unforgivable Blackness). The Championship was handed over to a white named Tommy Burns, who as well declined to fight Johnson but eventually gave in at the cost of thirty thousand dollars. In the year 1908, Johnson knocked out Burns in the sixteenth round, to win the title and create history. “He was a fast and brilliant defensive boxer who fought at a time when white champions like John L. Sullivan and James Jeffries refused to fight black fighters. Jeffries retired rather than face Johnson, but he returned six years later when the clamor for a great white hope could not be ignored”(Sandomir D3). Even James Jefferies was beaten and and thus, Johnson had beat all that stood in his way, from bottom to the top. Through perseverance and relentlessness, Johnson had achieved his dream.

This quote from history.com describes why he was liked by many. “By ‘destroying’ German Max Schmeling in their second encounter in 1938, as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rose to power, Louis provided some assurance that America’s best could beat the best that Germany had to offer. Louis continued to win approval thereafter by joining the army.” This quote shows that Louis loves his country and is humble about his victories, which started to unify Whites and Blacks. Before Joe Louis had fought that night, many Black Americans looked up to him as a symbol of hope for Blacks’ to be treated equally. In this quote from I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings on page 135, Maya accurately depicts what that fight meant for every Black American living in the South. “My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful.” Maya shows what Black Americans thought after their hero was struck down. She knew that if Louis would have lossed. Whites and Blacks would have never

certain acoustical deadness in my hole, and when I have music I want to feel

Cassius clay, one of the world’s most distinguished boxers, was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 7, 1942. Clays work ethic was apparent even in the early years of his life. As a child, he raced the school bus to school each morning. His friends would wave to him as the lead fluctuated based on the school bus’ stops. This work ethic extended to the classroom. Because of a learning disability, Clay had to work extra hard in school to not fall behind. Clay grew up with racial segregation all around him. These injustices sparked a passion in him to change the way people viewed African Americans: “I wanted to show that color didn’t matter”(Muhammad Ali: An American Legend). Clay’s boxing career began because of an incident when he was 12 years old. He and a friend rode their bikes to the Columbia Auditorium for The Louisville Home Show. When they were ready to go home, Clay discovered that his bike was stolen. Filled with rage, Clay wanted to retaliate. He found police officer, Joe Martin, who told him, “You better learn how to fight before you start challenging people that you’re gonna whoop” (Hauser 18). Martin became his coach, and although Clay never found the thief, he found a love of boxing that would continue throughout his life. Between the ages of 12 and 18, Clay

how important it was for Joe to win the fight and what the outcomes could be if he did