Louis dethroned James Braddock, knocking out “The Cinderella Man” in the 8th round.

Louis dethroned James Braddock, knocking out “The Cinderella Man” in the 8th round.

—June 22, 1937: A crowd of 65,000 at Comiskey Park in Chicago watched Joe Louis became the 1st African-American World heavyweight champion since Jack Johnson.

Louis dethroned James Braddock, knocking out “The Cinderella Man” in the 8th round.

Braddock was able to knock Louis down in round 1, after that, he could accomplish little.

The Brown Bomber’s victory was a seminal moment in African American history. Thousands of African Americans stayed up all night across the country in celebration.

Noted author and member of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes described Louis’s effect in these terms:

“Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of African-Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe’s one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions – or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too.”—