Almost three years ago in writing Part I of “Detroit History Through the Lens of Boxing,” for greeningdetroit.com, I alluded to two stories that are generally unknown to the history of Detroit through the ever-narrowing lens of boxing. Those two stories involve a murder of a black boxing trainer by a white patrolman in 1963 (a scenario that pulls in but does not directly involve a very young Emanuel Steward, and another strange (I’m going to call it a non-happening) in which Muhammad Ali was denied to fight in Motown against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in 1970, but did fight in Frazier in New York in what has become regarded as the Fight of the Century in 1971.
These two occurrences each involved a series of events that might be called “hidden” Detoit boxing stories that I’m putting together in a book for which I’m using a working title of Joe Louis, Race and Boxing in Detroit. As is reflected in this title, the multi-purpose of this book is to show the sport of boxing through Detroit’s favorite first son, Joe Louis, and how he was generally thwarted in his personal efforts in his quest for African-American egalitarianism; to show through the history of boxing in Detroit how it changed from the early-20th Century through the Louis era to its present state; and to show how race has played a role in Detroit history in general and in Detroit boxing in particular.