Round 2: “The Fight of the Century”
Excitement grew as “The Fight of the Century” arrived. Finally, the first bell sounded and the fight began. After 15 rounds, Jim Jeffries threw in the towel and Johnson was proclaimed the winner. After the fight, Jeffries proclaimed that he “could not have whipped Johnson at my best.” As news of Jeffries defeat circulated throughout the nation, riots broke out in numerous cities including New York, Atlanta, and Houston. 20 people were killed while hundreds more were injured.
Jack Johnson earned $117,000 for his victory over Jeffries. The racial tension that the fight caused did not seem to adversely impact him. Johnson continued to live his life the way that he wanted to regardless of what other people had to say. Even his strongest critics knew Johnson was a very talented boxer, but his personal conduct concerned numerous segments of the American population. W.E.B. DuBois criticized Johnson for not doing more to uplift the race. Johnson never hid the fact that he visited brothels and preferred the company of white women, a taboo in most American social circles at the time.
President William Howard Taft signed the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 into law. Known as the Mann Act, it now was a felony to transport women and girls across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” The vague language in the bill made it possible for the policing of consensual behavior among adults. With a lot of prodding from people that felt Jack Johnson violated the social norms of American society, federal prosecutors charged the boxer with violating the White-Slave Traffic Act and he stood trial in 1912.
As Lucille Cameron, a white woman, prepared to marry Johnson in 1912, her mother insisted that Johnson had kidnapped her daughter, took her across state lines, and forced her to marry him. Johnson’s former lover, Belle Schreiber, was the federal prosecutor’s chief witness. An all white jury found him guilty and a judge sentenced him to one year plus one day in federal prison. Just before he was to report to serve his time, Johnson joined a waiting Lucille in Montreal. The couple married and left for France. They lived in a war-torn Europe before fleeing to South America and later Mexico.
Johnson and his wife returned to the United States in July 1920. As he crossed the border at Tijuana, offices took him into custody and sent him to serve his sentence in Leavenworth. On July 9, 1921, Johnson was released from prison and resumed his married life with Lucille. No longer willing to accept Johnson’s numerous infidelities, Lucille filed for and was granted a divorce in early 1924. By August 1924, Johnson had married Irene Pineau.