I had all these pictures that didn't end up
in any of this, these editorial cartoons of Jack Johnson
where he's got these enormous lips
and he's got a watermelon in one hand and the title belt
in the other.
It was just unbelievable.
And I had a presentation where I included some of them,
and it just bothered me so much to see them in the world again
I just took it down.
So just trust me when I say how unbelievably racist
these things were.
And you see him, he didn't have any watermelon.
[LAUGHTER]
I'm going to read like maybe three more poems,
just because these are things we talked about
today from Janice's class.
This poem is called "The Titanic,"
and there's an epigraph to the book that
comes from Lead Belly, and it's a part
of the song "The Titanic," and it
says, "Jack Johnson want to get on board,
Captain said, I ain't haulin' no coal.
Fare thee, Titanic, fare thee well."
And so-- oh, I should read the rest of it.
"When he heard about the mighty shock,
might have seen the man trying to Eagle Rock.
Fare thee, Titanic.
Fare thee well."
So the Eagle Rock was a dance that they used to do back then,
and the idea of the song was that Jack Johnson's sitting
on the dock doing this dance when he finds out
the Titanic sank because he wasn't on it.
"Ticket on the Titanic."
Etta and I had no intention of missing the maiden voyage
of the finest ship built by man, but Captain Smith
drew the color line almost as quickly as Tommy Burns did.
I expect the line from a frightened prizefighter,
but an English sea captain?
He should be more principled, especially after I
offered $4,000 for each ticket.
Of course, that color line kept me
from fighting for Etta's space on that lifeboat
when the iceberg hit, and that's a fight you
can bet your last copper I would have won.
But even after all the offense I've suffered
and the indignity of being refused passage,
I would have never danced the Eagle Rock
after all those people drowned.