THE COLOUR "BAN"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 17

THE COLOUR "BAN"

1 ♦ WORLD BOXING TITLE LOUIS' RACIAL HANDICAP. AMBITION MUST BE EUT AWAY An article in a current magazine for February is entitled "Joe Louis Should Never be Champion." It is written by John B. Kennedy, whose name is well known in the literature of fisticuffs. The reasons Mr. Kennedy puts forth in the matter have no thing to do with the. ability of Joe Louis to become champion. Other considerations are broUght into it. The fact is recalled that on the night when Louis defeated Max Baer in Philadelphia the errdr was made of routing the stadium traffic through the hearfc of the coloured sector. The white people in their cars had coloured faces thrust in the windows, asking: "Who . won the fight?" It is suggested that one white man in a car giving an insolent Negro a poke in the jaw might have precipitated a riot. A victory for Joe Lo"uis sends Harlem into racial ecstasy. Still, why should we have heavyweight championships if we are not prepared to put them through to conclusion? When the coloured Jack Johnson wrecked Jim Jeffries in Nevada legislation was passed against .prize-fight-ing all over the United States. The object was not to prevent prize-flght-iiig but to prevent personil victories of Negroes over white men. Sam Langford showed too early in life how good he was and he could not get a first cl&ss match, not even with Jack Johnson or other foremost coloured men. Peter Jackson was gone and no other coloured men wanted to mix it Ud with Sam Langford.

Quite a few idle spectators of the ring and possessing no inslde knowledge cannot make out how it .was that .Joe Louis was so compliant . a punching bag the night Schmeling put him away. The whole thing was so unlike Louis before and since. . The suggestion made by Mr. Kennedy that it would he a great mlstake for Joe Louis to become champion of the world is suppbrted by certain sugT gestions," including the insolence with which coloured people would' acclaim it aftd the resentment white- people would show. The reader will see -that no' qu'estiori of sport Is involved* The coloured man is a poor winner; the white man a poor winner. There are hates involved that run down to the little toes of men. As the situatlon is, it seems to us that Joe Louis, no matter how good he is, stands small chance -of ever being . heavyweight champion of the world. Braddock -holds the title and is booked to meet Schmeling of Ger-' many. %i the German wins the title Hltler will - never" permit "him to" fight again. He will not permit- a fine? featured Aryan like the gentle-faced Schmeling to enter, the ring with a Negro. So Schmeling, if he wins, will take the world title home and

hang it up it Hitler's smoking-room. If Mr. Braddock should retain the title against Schmeling he will .take the title home, hand it to .his wife, and it will be a family .heirloom. He will, like Gene Tunney, flght no more. He too, only won the championship to show that he could do it. Mr. Kennedy thinks that Joe Louis should put away ambition. If he renounces all thought of the championship he can probably "make as much money" by knocking out the aspirants to the crown as they come along. "Louis," he writes, "has an opportunity to teaeh his race and ours that he is satisfied to be a national attraction instead of a national nuisance." Possibly that is what was impressed upon him the night Schmeling shoved him aside.