Joe Louis, a champion of the American people

Editor’s Note: The Sentinel sports staff is putting together a summer series looking at the legacies of the most influential African-American athletes in history. Today: Joe Louis.

Who was the greatest boxer in history?

Some will say Muhammad Ali. Some will say Rocky Marciano. Some will say pound-for-pound, Sugar Ray Robinson.

But Joe Louis is the only boxer to hold a heavyweight championship for more a dozen years (from 1937-49).

Louis also only lost three fights, including one coming out of retirement, successfully defending his title a record 25 times, despite not fighting for three years when he served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

But the legacy of Louis goes much deeper than wins and losses.

When he was a young child, his family moved to Detroit. He won the AAU national title and Golden Gloves title in 1934.

He knocked out six boxers to also hold the heavyweight championship at one time in their careers.

But was a loss that transformed Joe Louis into a figure or national pride and a symbol of racial equality in the U.S.

In 1936, his first professional loss was to German fighter Max Schmeling. Leading up to the rematch, the popular view on the fight was Nazism vs. democracy, though Schmeling himself was not a Nazi (of course the Nazis were all rooting for a white German fighter).

In the most dramatic moment of his career, Louis knocked out Schmeling to become a national hero to all races.

But in the aftermath of the fight and beyond, Louis still wasn’t treated as an equal in this country.

Many white fans liked him, not just because he was the best, but because he was quiet and humble and always showed good sportsmanship, something fans, especially white fans, would dislike about Muhammad Ali decades later.

Louis also became the most well-known Black man in America to enlist in the army during World War II. He served in a segregated unit alongside Jackie Robinson, though he did not see any combat.

Uncle Sam wanted him to rally the troops and he fought 96 exhibition bouts to raise funds for the war effort. He also donated more than $100,000 of his own money to the war relief.

But despite earning millions as a boxer, he spent or gave away most of it, forcing him to come out of retirement when the IRS found out he owed more than $1 million.

He lost to Ezzard Charles, then Rocky Marciano, his only losses besides the first Schmeling fight.

Louis was never able to get over the money problems, and when he died in 1981, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, it was Schmeling who paid for much of the funeral arrangements, and was a pallbearer.

What an amazing symbol of racial unity — one of the greatest legacies in sports history. The fighter backed by Hitler and the fighter who was an American hero, but also segregated in his own country, became lifelong friends.

His hometown of Detroit still has a 24-foot metal fist sculpture in honor of Louis, who was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1982.

Louis came to symbolize all that was right and all that was wrong in America at the same time. And it wasn’t Louis himself, but how he was received.

He was received as a national hero, but still one that was in a segregated army unit and couldn’t eat in most Southern restaurants despite being the heavyweight champion of the world for the longest span in history.

Just like Jesse Owens, America relished in his victory, but not enough for American society to treat him equally.

But Louis was a hero. He was a hero in the ring. He was a hero raising money for the war and serving his country.

And he was a hero for racial unity fighting for equality, making him one of the most important athletes in American history.

— Follow Sports Editor Dan D’Addona on Twitter @DanDAddona and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.