It was 1938, on the eve of the start of World War II. And a 24-year-old American boxer, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, was about to alter the course of our history.
That young man was Joe Louis – full name Joe Louis Barrow, more widely known by the nickname “The Brown Bomber.”
On June 22 at Yankee Stadium in New York, Joe Louis took on German boxer Max Schmeling in a much-anticipated rematch. Schmeling won their first bout, in 1936. But this one would be all Louis.
He knocked out Schmeling in the first round.
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But along the way, according to his son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr, the Brown Bomber transformed the way America saw African Americans.
And that is why Barrow Jr. called his 1988 book about his father Joe Louis: 50 Years an American Hero. I got a few minutes with him that fall when he was on a book tour.
So here now, from 1988, Joe Louis Barrow Jr.
Joe Louis died in 1981 at age 66. Max Schmeling helped pay for his funeral, and Louis was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
