Before Ali, there was Jack Johnson

Tom Kirkendall @ Houston's Clear Thinkers writes about Galveston-born heavyweight prize fight champion Jack Johnson, America's first black heavyweight champion, now the subject of a biography and PBS TV program.

This reminds of my time in Galveston, early '80s, when Johnson consciousness lead the city to OK the erection of a Jack Johnson sculpture in Menard Park, a popular gathering spot at 29th street where the island's African-American community would gather in large numbers on weekends.

It was a very, very weird sculpture. Modern, abstract art, I guess you'd call it. It sort of looked like a black cartoon Gumby, without any facial features whatsoever. I think it got rusted out. It's no longer in Menard Park. They should have made a proper bronze sculpture.