ABSTRACT
On June 22, 1938, Joe Louis defended his heavyweight boxing title in Yankee Stadium against Max Schmeling who, two years earlier, had inflicted the only loss up to that point on the record of the “Brown Bomber.” This was not, however, merely a grudge match for Louis. James A. Cox outlined the broader implications of the bout in an article for Smithsonian:
The striking change that in the past two years has begun to take place in much of white America's perception of the two contenders has moved the fight off the sports pages and into the social consciousness of the country. In the first meeting between Louis and Schmeling, the polarization of blacks and whites in the United States was dramatically evident: a great many white Americans cheered when the white German won. But now, as a result of the savage threat to decency and peace evident in Nazi Germany, for most Americans the fight, because of Adolf Hitler's special brand of racism, has become a symbolic showdown between us and them, between America and the enemy. Ironically, at a time when blatant racism was a pervasive part of American life, a young black man was being asked to prove the superiority of his country, to become, in fact, a national hero for all Americans.
