Joe Gans
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Joe Gans was an American professional boxer. Gans was rated the greatest lightweight boxer of all time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer. Known as the "Old Master," Gans beca
Gans in 1899
Joe Walcott vs. Joe Gans
A four-reel motion picture of the second Gans-Nelson fight in Colma, California, was shown in theaters across the country. Above, reporter-artist Marguerite Martyn sketched her impression of women watching the film in St. Louis, Missouri, in October 1908.
Barbados Joe Walcott
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Joe Walcott was a professional boxer from Barbados who reigned as the World Welterweight Champion from 1901 to 1906, becoming the first black man ever to capture the title. He is retrospectively known
Joe Gans
…become the first-ever U.S.-born African-American boxing champion. (Canadian-born black George Dixon had won the world bantamweight title in 1892, and Barbados Joe Walcott had won the world welterweight title in 1901, but neither of them was U.S.-born.) Gans reigned as champion from 1902 to 1908. On January 6, 1902, Gans…
Barbados Joe Walcott portrait
Sam Langford, circa 1910
Honey Mellody, 1910s