Jack Johnson Documentary

I watched “Unforgivable Blackness – The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson” over the last two nights on PBS. Ken Burns has produced another fascinating documentary (also see The Civil War and Jazz). If you missed it, I highly recommend seeing it. It’s being aired a few more times this week but it’s also available on DVD. Not only does the film show how dominant Jack was in the ring but it also gives great insight into his extraordinary live outside of the ring. The most striking thing to me about this trip to the past was seeing how things have changed (or not) since the early 1900’s. On the ‘not changing’ side is how the U.S. government will go out of its way to abuse the law in order to prosecute a black man for being involved with a white woman. Just look at the recent Marcus Dixon case to see how little things have changed in that respect.