This lithograph depicts the defeat of Jim Jeffries, the "White Hope," by the first
African-American heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. Johnson took the title from
Jeffries in Reno in 1910, knocking down Jeffries three times in a fifteen-round fight.
Five years later, Johnson lost his title in Cuba to Jess Willard. The fight was held in
Cuba because Johnson had fled the United States after being convicted and sentenced to
a prison term, under the Mann Act, for abducting a white woman and taking her across
state lines for illegal purposes.
Buy the catalogue An American Pulse: The
Lithographs of George Wesley Bellows.
