Even adjusted for inflation, professional athletes never scored million-dollar contracts in the 1930s. However, a son of share-cropping former slaves like Joe Louis Barrow quickly discovered he could make good money in the ring once his family moved north. It was not easy for black fighter to move up the rankings during the post-Jack Johnson era, but not impossible. Indeed, Louis quickly became a leading contender.
Fittingly, Spetseris and company devote a good deal of time to the fight that cemented Louis’s reputation and offered a preview of the Louis-Schmeling match-ups. The American fighter faced Primo Carnera, who served as Mussolini’s proxy champion in much the same way Schmeling would (perhaps somewhat reluctantly) for Hitler. Black Americans already identified with Louis, but they also resented Italian military adventurism in Ethiopia, during the months leading up to the full-scale invasion. Consequently, the Louis-Carnera fight aroused great passions.
Likewise, non-religious Jewish champion Max Baer made no secret of what he thought of National Socialist Germany during his victory over Schmeling—another historically significant bu largely forgotten bout also covered during the History program. On the other hand, Louis’s first fight against Schmeling is well-documented, because it did not go as he hoped, but it set-up a rematch of Rocky IV dimensions.
Every boxing fan agrees Louis deserved better. After representing the free world in the ring against Schmeling and serving in uniform during WWII, he was hounded into bankruptcy by the shameful IRS. (If ever there was an agency to abolish, that would be it.) As you would expect, Spetseris and company duly decry Southern segregation, which was initially facilitated by Woodrow Wilson—perhaps one reason why Louis often supported Republicans—a fact Clash of Nations ignores.
