Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005)

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1 Season

January 17, 2005

English

Documentary

Synopsis

The story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American boxer to win a title and his struggle to live as a free man.

Network

PBS

Episodes

Part One

Jan 17, 2005

111 min

Follow Jack Johnson's journey from Texas to professional boxing, where, in Jim Crow America, the heavyweight champion was a "white title." In 1908 he became the first African American to earn the title Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Part Two

Jan 18, 2005

102 min

When no one could beat Johnson in the ring, the government set out to destroy him in the courts, using his relationships with white women as the excuse to prosecute and send him to jail. Johnson fled to Europe where he remained a fugitive.