Johnson hoboed to Chicago in the spring of 1899. He realized that to get anywhere in the boxing business, he needed to find a white manager, but he was unable to find anyone willing to represent him.

Long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, Jack Johnson broke down racial boundaries ... He had his own jazz band, owned a Chicago nightclub, acted on stage, drove flashy yellow ...

Popular novelist Jack London wrote in a New York ... championship against Jim Flynn on July 4, 1912, Johnson opened Cafe de Champion, his Chicago nightclub. That year, he was frequently in the ...