Introduction to the Flower-Greb Comparison

An introduction to the Flower-Greb Comparison, which looks at a dramatic fight series that fractured the color line for the Middleweight Division, and ultimately all of boxing, requires an understanding of the color line and its significance not only in boxing, but also in American society. We begin with an explanation of TFM’s approach to the color line, and then continue with a historical account of the color line in boxing.

TFM’s Approach to the Color Line

At TFM, our interest in boxing extends well beyond reporting fight outcomes and detailing who did what before, after, and during a boxing match. We aim to understand the sport’s formal and informal workings from 1890 to 1929, a period during which boxing in America evolved from a series of clandestine brawls into a respected international sport. This period of transformation often involved unseen parties dictating outcomes that aligned with undocumented designs for the sport and society as a whole. TFM’s presentation of It Took a TIGER to Fracture Boxing’s Color Line, is part of a larger museum focus that seeks to illuminate the making of boxing champions in Black and White. This analysis concentrates on race and the influence of print media.

No study of early 20th-century sports in America and American civilization is complete without examining centuries-old systems designed to contain, constrain, and disadvantage Blacks and other non-whites, women, people with disabilities, and people living non-traditional lifestyles. This museum exists to document, preserve, and promote intersections of fights in rings, fights among nations, and fights for equality and justice from 1890 through 1929. We do this work to better equip current and future generations in thinking critically and inclusively as they endeavor to create a more just, truthful, and sustainable world.

The Flowers–Greb Comparison reflects TFM’s analytical framework, which is designed to reveal much more than fight outcomes. TFM’s framework exposes the competitive systems that shaped who advanced, where they fought, and how championship opportunities were constructed. The color line in boxing was one of the informal, undocumented systems that preserved championships by excluding Black boxers from title contention. In this presentation, we offer evidence of its existence and illustrate how it was ultimately fractured in one of boxing’s most notable fight series.

A Brief History of the Color Line in Boxing

There was no formal, universally accepted rule excluding Black boxers from participating in title bouts across boxing’s many weight divisions. The color line was largely a social practice, rooted in notions of white superiority. While it had adherents throughout the colonialized world, it was especially virulent in the United States. The color line took root in America amidst a massive and often violent backlash to Reconstruction, a system that sought to enfranchise formerly enslaved Americans. Racial hierarchies of the former Confederacy were restored in Southern States, and social advances made possible during Reconstruction were dismantled through sweeping race-based laws and covenants nicknamed Jim Crow. Some states, like Louisiana and Mississippi, outlawed mixed-race boxing altogether. In the industrial North and Midwest, racial restrictions were imposed in many sectors to advantage white Americans and the throngs of Western European immigrants who flocked to America during the Industrial Revolution, most notably the Irish and Germans. With such laws came general acceptance of racial separation, also known as segregation, in most walks of life.

The Color Line Among Heavyweights

The earliest and most visible advocate for the color line in boxing was John L. Sullivan, an Irish-American heavyweight who was the American champion at a time when boxing was transitioning from bare-knuckle contests to gloved contests governed by the Rules of the Marquess of Queensberry, which were first introduced in England in 1867. The Rules mandated padded gloves, three-minute rounds with one-minute rest periods, a 10-second count for knockdowns, a defined ring, and the prohibition of wrestling and clinching. These rules established the foundation of modern boxing.

Unlike baseball and American football, boxing was a global sport, in no small measure due to the social influences of European colonial powers, beginning with the British Empire. Colonialization meant that people of African descent, who were subjected to colonialism, including those in the American colonies prior to the American Revolution, were often exposed to boxing and, in some cases, given access to the sport.

Peter Jackson, a prominent Black prizefighter of the late nineteenth century, was one such person. A native of St. Croix, then a Danish possession that became part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jackson learned to box as a merchant seaman. In 1886, he became the national champion of Australia, his adopted country, and World ‘Colored’ Heavyweight Champion in 1888. During the early 1890s, Jackson sought to challenge Sullivan for the world title. Sullivan, who boasted of taking on all challengers, refused to battle Jackson and became outspoken in his opposition to allowing Black boxers to contend for titles. In 1908, John L. Sullivan was quoted in a Chicago newspaper as saying, “Draw the color line. Let the Blacks fight it out among themselves.”

See John L. Sullivan’s Views in Print

John L. Sullivan helped to “Normalize” the Color Line, beginning with his refusal to fight Peter Jackson.

Shown above is the sports page of the Wednesday, December 9, 1908 edition of the Chicago Evening American. Prominent on the page is a photograph of John L. Sullivan, who is regarded by some as the first world heavyweight champion of the modern gloved era of boxing. Appearing in cursive over Sullivan’s photograph is a quote from the boxer that reads, What Boxing needs is a champion that can be called a real American. Sullivan’s statement was a not-too-subtle swipe at the then-reigning heavyweight champion, Tommy Burns, who resided in America but was a Canadian of Italian descent. The newspaper has an equally controversial quote reflecting Sullivan’s views on the color line.

Although Jack Johnson cracked the Color Line in the Heavyweight Division in 1908, it would be roughly thirty years before another Black man, Joe Louis, would again hold the title. Following Jack Johnson’s fall as champion, social progress was slow to take hold across all segments of American life, but movement towards greater inclusion began to surface in the mid-1920s within boxing’s middleweight division.

Fracturing the Color Line Among the Middleweights

This presentation examines Tiger Flowers and Harry Greb over five years, from 1922 through Greb’s untimely death in 1926, to illuminate the circumstances that led to Tiger Flowers becoming the first African American to hold the World Middleweight Championship. The presentation begins with a look at the ambition that drew the two men increasingly into each other’s orbit. The eventual confluence began in 1922, as each man pursued various boxing titles. As fans of early 20th-century boxing, we are fortunate that individuals and events related to boxing were extensively documented across a variety of print media. The exhibit card shown below, copyrighted in 1923, mentions several crucial facts:

• at the time the card was published, Tiger Flowers was the World ‘Colored’ Middleweight Champion,
• Johnny Wilson was still the World Middleweight Champion, and
• Flowers had already expressed interest in challenging Johnny Wilson.

The postcard reveals a situation in boxing worth reflecting upon. When the postcard was published, Tiger Flowers had already begun challenging boxing’s color line, which was an informal agreement among boxing champions to block African Americans from title contention. The Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago intimated that Johnny Wilson would likely ignore Flowers, meaning he would likely invoke the color line rule.

Why This Comparison Matters

Comparing distinguishing aspects of competitors is a universal practice among sports analysts, commentators, and historians. Such information is prized among sports fans and is typically the basis for much pre-competition conjecture regarding outcomes, which fuels gaming activities.

In boxing, comparing the physical attributes of competing boxers was a common feature of pre-fight newspaper coverage of a fight during the four decades that are the focus of THE TRIPLE FIGHT (1890-1929), a period in which there was extensive overlap between three categories of fights: F1-Fights in Rings (Boxing and Boxers), F2-Fights Among Nations (Military and War) and F3-Fights for Equality and Justice (in America and beyond).

Another set of fight comparisons involves examination of boxers’ fight records, which are typically distinguished by W-Wins, L-Losses, Draws (Equal Performance), and NC-No Count and No Decision (NC-ND typically occurring when a referee stopped a fight due to poor performance by the contenders).

At TFM, a boxer’s fight record is only part of the analysis. We like to begin by considering the number of fights undertaken and the number of opponents a boxer engaged over a period of time, and/or within a specific market. We are often interested in knowing the number of fighters a boxer encountered, say, in Philadelphia, in a given year or over their career. The number of contenders a fighter has met in a ring provides an indication of the breadth of their fight experience. This is an important qualifier because two boxers might have fought the same number of fights but encounter different numbers of ring rivals, and thus will have different depths of experience. A boxer might have had ten ring encounters in one year, but may have only engaged with five rivals, which means the fighter fought each rival an average of two times. The boxer with only five rivals had a different range of experiences than a fighter who had ten ring encounters with ten different rivals. In making side-by-side comparisons between boxers, we first list the number of fights they fought in a year followed by the number of contenders to underscore similarities or differences in the breadth of two boxers’ experience in a given year.

Another significant marker for us at TFM is the number of locations a boxer fought in, which signals the boxer’s prominence and viability within regional, national, and international markets.

We note relevant titles a boxer might have attained and then conclude with side-by-side comparisons of fight outcomes, which tells us how well a boxer campaigned in a given year.

Taken together, the multi-tiers of performance indicators provide an illuminating picture of how well each boxer performed in a given year and the geographical breadth of their annual campaigns. With this information in hand, we then consider three additional elements in our annual comparisons: 1) the alignment with championship efforts – either direct or indirect, 2) the number of opponents they had in common, and 3) any locations and venues they shared.

Such information provides a comprehensive framework for gauging the following:

– similarities and differences between two boxers in a given year and over time

– the competitiveness of the sport

– the structures of advancement within boxing, and

– the vibrancy of the Black boxing circuits and boxers.

Formulating a more complete picture of the ecosystems in which boing in America evolved is foundational to understanding and appreciating the fullness of boxing’s history and America’s history. This presentation brings to life two boxers worth remembering and, in so doing, reveals a community of boxers that was essential to the advancement of the sport and ultimately, American society. Black boxers, through their conditioning and ring battles, reflected extraordinary resiliency and resistance in a time of structured racial isolation and constraint. In so many ways, they embodied the fighting spirit of America.

About The Greb-Flowers Comparison and TFM’s 6-Part Framework

Anchored within the TFM 6-Part Framework, this presentation is more than just a series of comparisons between two great boxers. It is a work that provides an important revelation into the fluidity and dynamics of a sport that was gaining universal acceptance and making a significant imprint within the social fabric of American life during the 1920s.

The comparisons in this presentation center on the ring meetings of Harry Greb and Tiger Flowers, which occurred three times over the course of three years, and reflected the competitiveness of the sport, the structures of advancement within boxing, and the vibrancy of the Black boxing circuits and boxers. Formulating a more complete picture of the evolution of boxing in America is foundational to understanding and appreciating the fullness of America’s history with sports and as a civil society. This presentation brings to life two boxers whose lives and ring accomplishments mattered during their lifetimes and still do. In addition, this presentation reveals of a community of boxers that were essential to the advancement of the sport, and ultimately American society. Black boxers, through their conditioning and ring battles, reflected extraordinary resiliency and resistance in a time of structured racial isolation and constraint. In so many ways, they embody the fighting spirit of America.