The Ken Burns documentary about Jack Johnson -Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson details the rise and fall of the 1st Black Heavyweight Champion and the racism that surrounded this great fighter. I watched the public showing in the Auditorium at The Detroit Public Library - Main Branch presented by the Friends of The Detroit Public Library. As usual, the Ken Burns style really brought out the life in this story - and the old footage was amazing - Jack Johnson DESTROYED everyone he fought until he went into exile. After the short finished, Ken Burns took questions from the audience and revealed the full documentary will be aired in Detroit Public Television in 2 parts - late December - Catch this if you can!!!
check http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/ for updates on when it will air on Detroit Public Television - Burns mentioned Jan 17-18th.
"Any serious study of American history inevitably engages the question of race and the monumental hypocrisy born at our founding; the existence of slavery in a country that had just proclaimed to the world that "all men are created equal..." In the story of Jack Johnson, these questions come to a profound crux. This is not just a story of supreme athletic achievement, nor even just a story of sex — black and white relationships — which got Johnson into so much trouble. It's not even wholly about race, though Johnson's "unforgivable blackness" propels this extraordinary story. In the end this is a story about freedom, and one black man's insistence that he be able to live a life nothing short of that of a free man.
— Ken Burns"