ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the scene in the streets of Chicago after Joe Louis defeated Max Baer in a key heavyweight boxing match in 1935. It draws attention to the impact of Louis's victory in generating feelings of pride and solidarity in the black American community. Joe Louis's hand was hoisted as victor in his four-round go with Max Baer, Negroes poured out of beer taverns, pool rooms, barber shops, rooming houses and dingy flats and flooded the streets. Really, there was a religious feeling in the air. Well, it wasn't exactly a religious feeling, but it was something, and you could feel it. It was a feeling of unity, of oneness. Two hours after the fight the area between South Parkway and Prairie Avenue on 47th Street was jammed with no less than twenty-five thousand Negroes, joymad and moving to they didn't know where. Clasping hands, they formed long writhing snake-lines and wove in and out of traffic.
