A few years ago, I used the story of boxer Jack Johnson to illuminate the plight of an elderly white attorney bearing the same name. My piece began with a quick run down of the boxer’s career:

On the Fourth of July 1910, the Great White Hope stepped into the ring with Jack Johnson, a black fighter from Galveston, Texas. The myth of white superiority, a bedrock principle of the Jim Crow era, was riding on the line. But there was thunder in the black man’s right hand, lightning in his left. He carved up his white opponents with nonchalant grace, smiling sweetly all the while.

And so, by popular demand, Jack Jeffries emerged from retirement to fight Johnson for a purse of $100,000 in 1910, shedding eighty pounds in the process. When Jeffries and the myth of white superiority were reduced to ruins, race riots across the nation claimed the lives of twelve innocent black men, and law enforcement officials worked overtime to take the smiling black champion down. Eventually, Jack Johnson was framed on trumped up morals charges and forced to flee the country.

A century later, John McCain (an avid boxing fan) is leading the fight to have Johnson’s conviction overturned.  You can find the details at Ed Gray’s blog.