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Boxing

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Joe Louis full-length portrait

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Joe Louis

Joe Louis Early Life Joe Louis was born Joseph Louis Barrow on May 13, 1914 in Lafayette, Alabama. He was the seventh of eight children and a grandson of slaves. His parents made a modest living: His father, Mun Barrow, was a sharecropper, while his mother, Lillie Barrow, was a laundress. When he was 2 […]

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Super Fight II was a non-title boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The second of the three Ali-Frazier bouts, it took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on January 28, 1974.

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali’s Early Years and Amateur Career Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., the elder son of Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990) and Odessa Grady Clay (1917-1994), was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a red-and-white Schwinn that steered the future heavyweight champion to the sport of boxing. When his beloved bicycle was […]

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Stories

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Jack Johnson

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The ‘White Slavery’ Law That Brought Down Jack Johnson is Still in Effect

The Mann Act was designed to prevent human trafficking—but used to punish interracial relationships.

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Muhammad Ali vs. the United States of America

Fifty years after Muhammad Ali refused military induction during the Vietnam War, a new book examines the heavyweight champ’s controversial decision.

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A striking view of Richmond. Hand colored etching

The 19th-Century Black Sports Superstar You’ve Never Heard Of

Boxer Bill Richmond’s improbable rise from slavery to superstardom came almost a century before Jack Johnson even picked up a pair of gloves.

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baseball, left-handers, boxing

Why are left-handers called “southpaws”?

The “American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language” cites the conventional wisdom that the word “southpaw” originated “from the practice in baseball of arranging the diamond with the batter facing east to avoid the afternoon sun. A left-handed pitcher facing west would therefore have his pitching arm toward the south of the diamond.” As the […]

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This Day in History

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1908

Jack Johnson wins heavyweight title

Sports
1962

Switzerland welcomes first drive-through bank

Inventions & Science
1994

George Foreman becomes oldest heavyweight champ

Sports
1964

Young Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston for first world title

Black History
1978

Muhammad Ali wins world heavyweight championship

Black History
1958

Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Carmen Basilio for middleweight title

Sports
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