On September 6, 1892, a diminutive Black prizefighter brutally dispatched an overmatched white hope in the New Orleans Carnival of Champions boxing tournament. That victory sparked celebrations across Black communities nationwide but fostered unease among sporting fans and officials, delaying public acceptance of mixed-race fighting for half a century. This turn echoed the nation’s disintegrating relations between whites and Blacks and foreshadowed America’s embrace of racial segregation.
In this work of sporting and social history, we have a biography of Canadian-born, Boston-raised boxer George Dixon, the first Black world champion of any sport and the first Black world boxing champion in any division. George Dixon chronicles the life of the most consequential Black athlete of the nineteenth century and details for the first time his Carnival appearance, perhaps the most significant bout involving a Black fighter until Jack Johnson began his reign in 1908. Yet despite his triumphs, Dixon has been lost to history, overshadowed by Black athletes whose activism against white supremacy far exceeded his own.
George Dixon reveals the story of a man trapped between the white world he served and the Black world that worshipped him. By ceding control to a manipulative white promoter, Dixon was steered through the white power structure of Gilded Age prizefighting, becoming world famous and one of North America’s richest Black men. Unable to hold on to his wealth, however, and battered by his vices, a depleted Dixon was abandoned by his white supporters just as the rising tide of Jim Crow limited both his prospects and the freedom of Blacks nationwide.
“Boxing Books – Holiday Reading: 2021” by Thomas Hauser
Jason Winders is a journalist and sport historian who lives in London, Ontario. Author website.
“With George Dixon: The Short Life of Boxing’s First Black World Champion, 1870–1908, Jason Winders has finally provided the world with a treatment of the trailblazing pugilist worthy of his accomplishments. … Unlike other histories of Dixon, Winders’s treatment is more than a mere chronicling of a boxing career. It transports the reader beyond boxing, weaving the nuances of nineteenth- century American life into the narrative to provide a portrait of Dixon that flows with the social currents of his times. It is impeccably researched and beautifully written. … Winders’s book is the single most important volume ever published on Dixon, giving the pioneering boxer a treatment he so obviously deserved. This is the best boxing book I have read in a decade.”
—Gregory Ross, Journal of Sport History, Fall 2022
Literary Notes from Tom Hauser: “George Dixon” by Jason Winders
“Before there was Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, and Jack Johnson, there was George Dixon. Although just ninety-seven pounds when he first entered the ring, the diminutive Dixon punched above his weight to become one of the most famous athletes during the Gilded Age. Jason Winders rescues the tale of this first Black world boxing champion from history’s dustbin and gives readers ringside seats as Dixon battles not just fellow fighters but also the racism of Jim Crow America while becoming champion on three continents. Thoroughly researched, this book brings to life the true story of a remarkable sporting trailblazer.”
—Christopher Klein, author of Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America’s First Sports Hero
Sport, Culture, and Society is a series from the University of Arkansas Press that publishes monographs and collections for academics and general readers in the humanities and social sciences. Its focus is the role of sport in the development of community and the forging of individual, local, regional, and national identities.
Winner, 2022 NASSH Book Award (Monograph)
