Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows my sorrow (Anonymous)

A traditional spiritual of African American slaves, it was first written down in an 1867 collection entitled "Slave Songs of the United States". It is not clear when it was conceived or the authors name. It has been covered many times and expresses the isolation and desperation (along with a hope for the life to come) that was associated with the racially motivated privations doled out to African American slaves in the late 19th Century.

If sport holds up a mirror to the values of the society in which it is set then the presence of racism in sport in the late 19th century should not be a surprise. Though there are still examples of racism in the current day the abuse that afflicted black sports stars of the past was in comparison off the scale. The plight of black and mixed race boxers from the 19th century is a particular example though of course the racism was prevalent across all sports.

The three examples chosen Jack Johnson, Len Johnson and Leone Jacovacci are just that, examples. Any number of black fighters from the period could have been used and though each was very different in character all were treated in a similar manner by the authorities because of their one common feature- the colour of their skin.

Of the three Jack Johnson the African American world heavyweight champion from 1908 to 1915 was the most well known. He operated at a time when his country had enacted Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern US and instutionalized economic, educational, and social disadvantages for African Americans.

He was an excellent defensive fighter with a counter punching style who was also, as situation dictated, effective offensively. However even though millions of African Americans celebrated his victories he did not see himself as their representative. When he challenged and baited the white status quo it was for his own reasons and benefit rather than as a representative of African Americans. He stated ‘ I have found no better way of avoiding racial prejudice than to act in my relations with people of other races as if prejudice did not exist.’ He taunted white and black competitors equally, refused fellow black fighters title shots , arranged his own affairs, flaunted his success and wealth and married three white women. All this to the chagrin of black activists who saw him bringing shame on African Americans as well as his actions invoking the fury of the white authorities. However despite his clear lack of political activism he was still targeted for being black (and loud and successful) by the white hierarchy.

The press clearly targeted him in both personally derogatory and generally racist terms. The judiciary prosecuted him under the “Mann White Slave Act,” as he journeyed across state lines with Beth Schriber a white former prostitute even though she travelled with him as his lover. The boxing authorities sought white fighters to dethrone him, most famously former champ Jim Jeffries, the original Great White Hope.

So Jack Johnson was a famous athlete who was brash, flaunted his wealth , taunted his opponents and married across racial lines. His fight with the authorities was his own rather than on behalf of African Americans but the prevailing societal and institutional racism ensured he would be targeted and persecuted because of the characteristic he shared with fellow African Americans - the colour of his skin.

Leone Jacovacci was born in the then Belgium Congo to a Congalese mother and Italian father. His father took him to Italy to be raised by grandparents in Viterbo outside Rome. Experiencing racial discrimination as he grew up he took work as a cabin boy on a British Merchant ship eventually settling in England. He changed his name to John Douglas Walker, added a few years to his age and joined the 53rd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment of the British Army where he learned to box. Upon his discharge, he took up amateur boxing in London before moving to France where is pro career took off with an impressive string of victories. It was in 1922 that he returned to Italy and after a short period pretending to be an American named Jack Walker he reclaimed his true identity. The problem was he was a successful non-white sportsman in Mussolini’s fascist controlled country. He had fought Bruno Frattini the Italian middleweight champion and lost on points earlier in his career, now with more experience under his belt he was determined to claim the national title.

A string of victories earned him a fight with Mario Bosisio, the then current Italin middleweight champ. It was scored a draw though most spectators saw an easy Jacovacci victory. A further seven victories earned him a rematch against Bosisio who was now European as well as Italian Middleweight Champion. The Afro-Italian fighter won the 1928 re-match in front of key facist dignitaries who were enraged that their best fighter and European champ was mixed race.

Jacovacci did his best to integrate himself with the Italian authorities . He joined the National Fascist Party and enjoyed popularity in Rome though this was due to him being adopted as their representative against other Italian regions rather than the authorities accepting him and officially he was shunned and ostracised.

Unlike Johnson Jacovacci had tried to conform and support the ruling elite however as in Johnson’s case the colour of his skin saw him targeted and discriminated against.

Len Johnson was born in turn of the century Manchester to a Sierra Leonean merchant seaman and a white Mancunian mother of Irish ancestry. He grew up amongst the small black community that was established in Manchester as a result of the ship canal and gained his initial boxing experience as a house fighter in the travelling boxing booth circuit. Johnson was noted as a very skilful defensive middleweight boxer with an educated left hand however though he won more than he lost his early pro record suggested he would only be a journeyman fighter. It was in 1925 that he was matched in a non-title bout against Roland Todd the then current British Middleweight Champion.

He took the opportunity and defeated Todd in that bout and a subsequent re-match. That should have been enough to gain him the title except for one thing. The suited racist elite of the National Sporting Club had in place a ‘colour bar’, the infamous Rule 24 which stated that title contestants must have two white parents. It wasn't just the NSC though. The 'colour bar' had the support of the political classes as well who feared trouble in the Empire if black fighters were allowed to win titles.

Over the next seven years mostly fighting at the highest levels Johnson won 56 and lost 12 fights. Along the way he defeated many current, former or future champions; the British and Empire Heavyweight champion, two British and Empire Light Heavyweight champions, a European Light Heavyweight champion, two European Middleweight champions, two British and Empire Middleweight champions and a British, Empire and European Welterweight champion. He also won a purported world Middleweight title eliminator.

Gaining no traction in his attempts to overturn the colour bar during this period he fought in Australia where one of his victories noted previously won him the Empire Middleweight title however on his return to Britain he found he’d been stripped of the title. It was a terrible slight to a well regarded man who was acknowledged by many as Britain’s best middleweight.

It took the 1947 Labour government to insist that the BBBC (formerly NSC) drop the colour bar. Johnson had retired in 1933.

Jack Johnson was always an individualist, Leone Jacovacci attempted to integrate and Len Johnson was an activist ; whatever the stance taken the result was the same, the colour of the fighters skin was the key determinant in the way they were treated.

It is interesting to consider that of the three fighters, one from a country that at the time enacted racist laws (Jim Crow Act), one that was from a country run by a fascist dictatorship and one from a democracy that abolished slavery in 1833 the British fighter was the only one who was barred from holding a title due to his colour.