Boxing Champ Jack Johnson; Persevere: He brushed away racial boundaries in his quest to be the best fighter.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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Byline: CURT SCHLEIER

Jack Johnson never worried about "what if."

Johnson, who fancied fast cars and long straightaways, was once asked if he thought about the possible consequences of an automobile accident.

" "If' and "suppose' -- two small words, but nobody has ever been able to explain them," Johnson said. "One man falls out of bed and is killed. Another falls from a 50-foot scaffold and lives. One man gets shot in the leg and is killed. Another gets a bullet in his brain and lives . . . I always take a chance."

His willingness to take risks helped make him the heavyweight boxing champion of the world at a time when much of the country was still shackled by racist laws and beliefs.

Johnson (1878-1946) was fortunate in a couple of ways. First, he was born in Galveston, Texas. Though deep in the South, it was a port town and, like New Orleans, more tolerant of racial differences.

Moreover, as Geoffrey C. Ward notes in "Unforgivable Blackness,"...

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