Programmed to Run

Giving his work a title that refers to both Jack Johnson's boxing match against James Jeffries and to the Civil Rights struggle in general, Hietala (history, Grinnell College) explores how the lives of African-American boxers Johnson and Louis reflect the aspirations of African Americans and were conditioned by the racism that opposed those aspirations. Traveling beyond the boxing ring, he looks at how the defeats of white boxers and the hands of these boxers echoed with a symbolic importance to Black America, while their later experiences, including Johnson's prosecution under the Mann Act (the so-called "white slavery" bill) and Louis's experience in the Army, showed how powerful the forces of prejudice could remain. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)