(1902-74)
Len Johnson, born in Manchester, England, in 1902, learned the noble art on the boxing booths of Bert Hughes and ‘Professor’ Bill Moore, and eventually became the owner of his own booth – travelling the roads and towns of England with fairgrounds. Johnson was a highly skilled boxer, with an educated left hand and a slippery defence that made him difficult to hit and left his features largely unmarked throughout his career.
Managed by his father, Bill, Len Johnson embarked on a conventional boxing career in 1921 that saw him win more often than he lost, but seemed to be headed nowhere in particular. In 1925, however, he had his first real break when matched in a non-title bout with Roland Todd, the reigning British Middleweight Champion. Johnson seized his opportunity by defeating Todd on points, and repeating the feat in a rematch. These wins should have automatically earned him the right to a title contest, but the boxing authorities forbade such a match due to Johnson’s colour. At the time boxing regulations included the infamous Rule 24, which stated that title contestants “…must have two white parents”.
From this point onwards, Johnson steadily began to dominate the British and European middleweight division, with impressive wins over the likes of former World Welterweight Champion Ted ‘Kid’ Lewis (stopped in nine rounds), Len Harvey, Gipsy Daniels, George West, Ted Moore, Jack Etienne, Harry Crossley, Leon Jaccovacci, Michele Bonaglia, plus many other leading British and European middle and light heavyweights of the period.
Fed up with the attitude of boxing officialdom in Britain, Johnson spent six months in Australia, where he won the British Empire middleweight championship by defeating local hero Harry Collins. Johnson was popular and very successful Down Under, returning home to get married. On arrival in England, Johnson discovered that his Empire title – won fair and square against a formidable opponent – was not recognised by the boxing authorities at home, who had installed Scotland’s Tommy Milligan as British Empire Champion – openly snubbing the man now generally regarded by boxing fans everywhere as Britain’s best middleweight, albeit unofficially. Johnson’s British Empire title victory, and two successful defences – all in Australia – only entered the boxing record books posthumously.
Unfortunately for Johnson, the rule journalists termed the ‘colour bar’ permanently blighted his ring career, and although he campaigned for a change in the regulations, his was a voice in the wilderness. This was before the age of protests, and most promoters of the day kept silent on this issue rather than risk retribution from the British Boxing Board of Control.
The ‘colour bar’ rule had the tacit support from successive governments, and had its origins in an irrational 19th Century fear felt by the ruling classes of an insurrection amongst the black colonial inhabitants of what was then the British Empire. It was believed that black fighters seen to be defeating white fighters would become undesirable role models who would undermine the Empire, and incite rebellion. The ‘colour bar’ era eventually ended in 1947 when the new, reforming Labour government, recognising that the Empire was changing to the Commonwealth, leaned on the BBB of C to effect a change.
‘Len Johnson and The Colour Bar’ looks at the life and times of Len Johnson, who after his highly successful boxing career was over, became a member of the Communist Party, a trade union leader, and a local civil rights activist. Johnson spent many years championing the causes of the under privileged, and was recognised as a community leader in Moss Side, Manchester, where he frequently intervened in cases involving racial discrimination. Amongst Johnson’s closest friends was the American actor/ singer/ civil rights activist Paul Robeson. The book looks not only at Len Johnson’s life and boxing career, but also at how/why the ‘colour bar’ came into being, and how/when it ended.
The book, a hardback, contains 33 pictures, most of which have not previously been published elsewhere. It costs £10 + £2p/p from Rob Howard, 42 Avondale Road, Edgeley, Stockport, Cheshire SK3 9NY; telephone 0161 480 8858; email [email protected]
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