Constructing G.I. Joe Louis:
Cultural Solutions to the "Negro Problem" during World War II
by: Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff
winner of the 2002 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award
In part:

It would take the Naval Relief Fund Benefit fight in 1942 for whites to hail Louis as a true American hero. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Naval Relief Society was responsible for aiding the families of those who died in the destruction. At the request of Mike Jacobs, Louis's promoter, Louis unhesitantly agreed to take part in a charity fight to benefit the Relief Society. Despite the fact that the Navy overtly practiced discrimination, relegating blacks to the lowest positions of messmen and janitors, Louis viewed the fight as a patriotic gesture, stating, "'Aint fighting for nothing, I'm fighting for my country."

The press relished in this unselfish display of patriotism; Louis was risking his heavyweight championship and giving up $70,000 in fighting the 250-lb Buddy Baer. White press discussion in the months leading up to the fight emphasized Louis's courageousness, self-sacrifice, and his willingness to fight "with his heart in his fists."  Yet, this praise of Louis's altruism came at a moment of increasing black discontent, a time when blacks were questioning America's ability to truly uphold the democratic principles it espoused. This disillusionment manifested in the black press as well as in A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington in July of 1941, prompted white anxiety about maintaining national morale. Thus, while the Navy fight was a pure symbol of American flag-waving, it also served the important function of publicizing black patriotism.

In addition, the fight encouraged blacks to perceive a white resistance to segregation. As whites indicated, without openly refuting the tenants of segregation, Louis's willingness to sacrifice could shame the segregated Navy. Whites could appear democratic without undermining the crux of the American racial hierarchy. With Joe Louis as their hero, whites could counter black militancy by providing them with an exemplary figure.

Once Louis had beaten Baer, he was hailed as "the best fighter ever" by the New York Post and the "true champion" by the Washington Post, Louis was regarded not only as a genuine patriot but also as a credit to the boxing profession.  Some reporters, such as Paul Gallico made a full 180 degree change of opinion. Gallico, who in 1935 had called Louis a "calmly savage Ethiopian" now claimed that Louis has finally "found his soul" and was a pure representation of "simple good American integrity." For Gallico, "Citizen Barrow" now was an emblem of honestly, simplicity and decency, someone whom both whites and blacks should admire.

And many blacks did. The Baltimore Afro-American related the words of former New York mayor James Walker, who described Joe's patriotism as the equivalent of "laying a red rose on Abe Lincoln's grave. Yet, these should not obscure those blacks who objected to the fight. In light of the Double V campaign, which resonated in all black newspapers, Louis's victory was tarnished by its proceeds' benefiting a discriminatory institution. A writer for the Amsterdam News claimed that Louis was the "sacrificial goat" in white propaganda, having much more to lose than his opponent.  The Baltimore Afro-American reported that many blacks did not attend the fight in protest of the Navy's oppressive policies, adding that if Joe Louis were to go into the Navy, he would be relegated to one of the lowest positions.

A day after the charity fight on January 10, Louis was inducted into the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Long Island. Like other athletes who enlisted as symbolic acts of heroism, Louis aroused popular support for the war effort. And on May 10, 1942, Joe Louis, in his private's uniform, made a speech stating, "We gonna do our part, and we will win, because we are on God's side." This quickly became a widely circulating propaganda slogan, appearing on recruitment posters and product advertisements. The phrase also inspired a poem, written by a white journalist, which quickly circulated in many of the major newspapers. Claiming that the war was named "out of the heart and the soul" the poet Carl Byoir elaborated:

Maybe those words were stamped
On your great grandfather's heart,
And maybe they were burned into his soul,
And maybe he came to love America
And to cherish its freedoms
More than some people who just inherited them.
And so, maybe you just felt what he felt
And so you named the war
This is God's War.

Byoir's words illuminate the unconscious reality of Louis's famed patriotism. In "naming the war" Louis was in some ways reconciling W.E.B. DuBois's notion of double consciousness-the tension of both black and American identity. Recognized by Byior as a war about black Americanness, about the inconsistency of blackness and Americanness, as well as the legitimacy of black ancestry, this poem elevated Louis above propaganda. Whether or not Byoir's words strongly resonated in the minds of most whites, the figure of Louis did, for a moment, challenge the orthodoxy of white American nationalism. Notions of true democracy came not from the hearts of whites who framed American political ideology, but from the souls of blacks who struggled on American soil.

Louis's assurance that America was "on God's side" revealed a complete faith in his country's democratic ideology, lacking the hostility and frustration felt by so many other blacks. Therefore, in some ways, the symbol of Louis allowed the perpetuation of discrimination and inequality. As historian Chris Mead thoughtfully concludes, "White Americans found it easier to give Joe Louis a medal than to integrate the army, easier to write an editorial praising Joe Louis than to hire a black reporter."  In the face of international accusations of racism, whites could use Louis as an example of tolerance and American egalitarianism.

Blacks, however, did not put their faith in these white gestures. During the war, blacks had relinquished their reliance on symbols and fought directly for racial equality. Louis no longer exemplified the future of race progress as he did in the 1930's-black activists such as A. Philip Randolph and the formation of organizations such as FOR and CORE provided important avenues for black advancement during the 1940's. Yet, as a black man who had made a dent in white tolerance, Louis would always be admired by his race. Louis's efforts to aid hundreds of wounded soldiers, both black and white, were commended by the general press. On September 24, 1945, Joe Louis was honored as a model soldier by the Legion of Merit for his "contributions to the reconditioning program for veterans from overseas."

During the 1930's and 1940's, Louis was not an undisputed symbol of race progress, nor was there ever consensus on his ability to "break the color barrier." For blacks, Joe Louis allowed for the possibility that, as Maya Angelou declared, they were "the strongest people in the world." For whites, Louis's pugilism in the late 1930's and early 1940's was a sign of American vigor and patriotism in the face of international rivalry and domestic tensions. Reaffirmed with every knock-out, Louis's expressions of American masculinity often provided both hope and comfort in times of national anxiety.

The contested terrain in the making of this American hero should not diminish the fact that Louis was, after all, a hero. And an important one at that. But the reasons for his stature were not as simple as an increasing racial liberalism on the part of whites, and blind worship on the part of blacks. A black hero in America cannot be understood outside of the incredible inconsistencies of American race relations. Intimately connected, yet spatially and psychologically separate, blacks and whites have always been burdened with the responsibility of reconciling both the presence and absence of divisions. Though Louis could not completely transcend these divisions, his place in American iconography did encourage a dialogue, although fractured, on the nature of making race. For this, Louis's uneven representation is a significant legacy.
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The Louis Pelzer Memorial Award was first given in 1949 for the best essay in American history by a graduate student.  The prize is $500, a medal, a certificate and publication of the essay in the Journal of American History.  The essay may be about any period or topic in the history of the United States, and the author must be enrolled in a graduate program at any level, in any field.