The Pussycat of Prizefighting

"In 1926 Theodore "Tiger" Flowers became the first African American boxer to win the world middleweight title. The next year he was dead, the victim of surgery gone wrong. His funeral in Atlanta drew tens of thousands of mourners, black and white. Atlantans would not grieve again in comparable numbers until the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968." "Flowers, whose career was sandwiched between those of the better-known black boxers Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, was not...
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"In 1926 Theodore "Tiger" Flowers became the first African American boxer to win the world middleweight title. The next year he was dead, the victim of surgery gone wrong. His funeral in Atlanta drew tens of thousands of mourners, black and white. Atlantans would not grieve again in comparable numbers until the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968." "Flowers, whose career was sandwiched between those of the better-known black boxers Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, was not America's first successful black athlete. He was, however, the first to generate widespread goodwill among whites, especially in the South, where he became known as "the whitest black man in the ring."" "The Pussycat of Prizefighting is an analysis of the cultural and historical currents that defined the terms of Flowers's success as both a man and an athlete. As we discover the sources of Flowers's immense popularity, Andrew Kaye also helps us to understand more the pressures and dilemmas facing African Americans in the public eye." "Through the prism of prizefighting, this book reveals the personal cost African Americans faced as they attempted to earn black respect while escaping white hostility. Andrew Kaye gives us much to ponder about our own hopes and prejudices - and how we often burden our athletes and celebrities with them."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved