The World Colored Welterweight Championship was a title that existed during the time of the color bar in professional boxing.
Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, riding on a bus, or in the rental or purchase of a home or of hotel rooms. Segregation is defined by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance as "the act by which a person separates other persons on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds without an objective and reasonable justification, in conformity with the proposed definition of discrimination. As a result, the voluntary act of separating oneself from other people on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds does not constitute segregation". According to the UN Forum on Minority Issues, "The creation and development of classes and schools providing education in minority languages should not be considered impermissible segregation, if the assignment to such classes and schools is of a voluntary nature".
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On 26 July 1936, Herbert Lewis Hardwick ("The Cocoa Kid") met Young Peter Jackson at Heinemann Park in New Orleans, Louisiana in a 10-round title bout referred by Harry Wills, the former three-time World Colored Heavyweight Champ. The Cocoa Kid won via a technical knock-out in the second round.
Herbert Lewis Hardwick Arroyo a.k.a. "Cocoa Kid" was a Puerto Rican boxer of African descent who fought primarily as a welterweight but also in the middleweight division. Hardwick won the World Colored Championships in both divisions. He was a member of boxing's "Black Murderers' Row" and fought the best boxers of his time. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.
Harry Wills was a heavyweight boxer who three times held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Many boxing historians consider Wills the most egregious victim of the "color line" drawn by white heavyweight champions. Wills fought for over twenty years (1911–1932), and was ranked as the number one challenger for the throne, but was denied the opportunity to fight for the title. Of all the black contenders between the heavyweight championship reigns of Jack Johnson and Joe Louis, Wills came closest to securing a title shot.
The World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a title awarded to black boxers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was the only recognized heavyweight championship available to blacks prior to Jack Johnson winning the world heavyweight title in 1908. The title continued to exist until the reign of Joe Louis as universally recognized champ, as the color bar against black heavyweights was enforced during and for a generation after Jack Johnson's reign as world champ.
He made four defenses of the title. On September 22 of that year at the same venue, he defeated Jackie Elverillo on points in 10 rounds. On 11 June 1937, at the Coliseum Arena in New Orleans, The Kid fought his old nemesis Holman Williams, prevailing in a close fight, winning a decision in the 12-rounder. Ring Magazine had donated a championship belt for the bout. [1]
Holman Williams was a world welterweight boxing contender.
The Ring is an American boxing magazine that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy of professional wrestling came more into question, The Ring shifted to becoming exclusively a boxing oriented publication. The magazine is currently owned by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Enterprises, which acquired it in 2007. Ring publishes boxers annual ratings since 1924.
The Kid successfully defended his title against Black Canadian boxer Sonny Jones at the Valley Arena in Holyoke, Massachusetts on 15 November 1937, in a bout refereed by former world heavyweight champ Jack Sharkey. The Kid scored a technical knock out in the sixth round of their 15-round bout. The Kid had devastated Jones in the third with a right to his jaw and opened a cut over Sonny's left eye with another right. Eventually, Sharkey stopped the fight as Jones could barely see.
The Valley Arena Gardens, most commonly referred to as the Valley Arena, was a sporting and entertainment venue in Holyoke, Massachusetts, best known for hosting weekly boxing matches which included Rocky Marciano's debut professional fight. Though best known for its history as a boxing venue, the Valley Arena also hosted wrestling, basketball, roller hockey, miniature golf and featured its own restaurant. As a nightclub and music venue it also hosted an array of vaudeville acts such as Bela Lugosi, as well as renowned musicians including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, The Ink Spots, The Dorsey Brothers, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sarah Vaughan, and The Temptations.
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 39,880. As of 2017, the estimated population was 40,341. Sitting 8 miles (13 km) north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.
Jack Sharkey was an American world heavyweight boxing champion. He was born Joseph Paul Zukauskas, the son of Lithuanian immigrants, in Binghamton, New York, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts as a young man. Sources report little of his early life until, at the outset of World War I, teenaged Joseph repeatedly tried to enlist in the Navy. Turned down because of his age, he was not able to enlist until after the end of the war.
The ascension of Henry Armstrong as the world welterweight champ on 31 May 1938 (when he beat Barney Ross) seemingly made the title redundant (the World Colored Heavyweight Championship expired when Joe Louis became world heavyweight champ in 1937 and the World Colored Middleweight Championship became defunct for 16 years after Tiger Flowers won the world middleweight title in 1926), but it was still contested during Armstrong's reign.
Henry Jackson Jr. was an American professional boxer and a world boxing champion who fought under the name Henry Armstrong.
Barney Ross was an American professional boxer. Ross became a world champion in three weight divisions and was a decorated veteran of World War II.
The World Colored Middleweight Championship was a title awarded to black boxers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was the only recognized middleweight championship available to blacks prior to Tiger Flowers winning the world middleweight boxing championship by defeating Harry Greb on 26 November 1926.
The Cocoa Kid lost the title to Charley Burley on 22 August 1938, at Hickey Park in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Burley won a unanimous decision in the 15-round bout, knocking the Kid to the canvas three times and defeating him decisively, taking his title. [2] [3] Burley never defended the title, probably out of a desire to get a title shot with Armstrong. To fill the vacant title, The Kid and Holman Williams met in a rematch on 11 January 1940 at the Coliseum in Baltimore, Maryland. The Kid won a unanimous decision in their 15-round title bout, winning the title for a second time.
Charley Burley was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950. Archie Moore, the light-heavyweight champion who was defeated by Burley in a 1944 middleweight bout, was one of several fighters who called Burley the greatest fighter ever. Burley was the penultimate holder of both the World Colored Welterweight Championship and the World Colored Middleweight Championship.
Millvale is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny River, opposite Pittsburgh, and off of Pennsylvania Route 28. The population was 3,744 at the 2010 census.
The Cocoa Kid never defended his second title. He won the revived World Colored Middleweight Championship in 1943.
