June 22nd 1938 Yankee Stadium A Black American Destroys the Aryan Myth of Hitler
The air crackled with excitement, nothing like this had taken place before. 66,000 screaming fans with the first $100 ringside tickets were about to see history.
Joe Louis a black American was fighting the pride of Nazi Germany, Max Schmeling.
Schmeling had inflicted Louis's only defeat with a 12th round knock out. Joe went on to win the Heavyweight title after that defeat but declared that he would not consider himself champion until he defeated Schmeling and avenged his only defeat.
But the fight was far more than avenging a loss. It became a battle between America, Nazi Germany and the Aryan myth. Joe had visited FDR at the White House and FDR said to Joe ''Joe we need your muscles to defeat the Nazi's''.
A huge burden for the young black man. The President was depending on him, America was depending on him.
Introductions done the bell rings, the moment of truth for the ''Brown Bomber''.
Louis destroyed Schmeling in a bit over 2 minutes. Schmeling spent 10 days in the hospital after the defeat. The Aryan myth had been destroyed by a young black man.
There is much to write about Max Schmeling, if an interest is shown I will do a separate article on him.
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It's difficult to explain or for many today to understand the significance of this fight on the world stage.
Opposing ideologies in the squared circle. Good vs evil....
Probably one of the top 10 sporting events of the 20th century.
It transcended a sporting event JR...It was world history in the making...70 million people listened in on their radio's...The population of the US at that time was 130 million...amazing.
Don't forget about Jesse Ownes two years earlier:
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin , Germany . Wikipedia
Not forgetting Jesse Owens and the other 17 blacks track and field athletes that competed in the 1936 Olympics squirrel.
The reason I chose this event was that the world was two years closer to WWII and it was one man, black and one man, white, opposing ideologies on the world stage. The ultimate stage for ''Good vs Evil''
The movie "Race" was all about this, and while it did cover more of Jessie's wins, it also showed this famous fight. Great film. You saw the story from all angles.
I never did see the movie ''Race'' Perrie...Hope sometime they have it on Netflix.