Joe Louis Fist

This 8,000 pound sculpture was a gift to the City of Detroit from Sports Illustrated magazine in 1986. It commemorates a 1938 boxing match between Black Detroiter Joe Louis and White German boxer Max Schmeling. The match is considered one of the most famous boxing matches of all time and is remembered as one of the major sports events of the 20th century.

To appreciate the significance of the fight, you have to transport yourself back to the 1930s. Boxing was second only to baseball as America's national passtime. Joe Louis rose to prominence on a string of 27 boxing victories, often defeating White opponents. His success put him on track to vie for the world championship in a match-up against the reigning champion, James Braddock.

Louis' success made him a sensation among African Americans. As Langston Hughes wrote:

"Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of black Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions—or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too."

Before reaching the World Championship title bout, however, Louis was slated to fight Schmeling in June 1936. Although a former world heavyweight champion, Schmeling was not considered a threat to Louis. Schmeling had won his heavyweight championship in 1930 on a technicality, after his opponent was disqualified for hitting Schmeling with a low blow. Moreover, Schmeling was considered past his prime at age 30. Accordingly, in the weeks leading up to the fight, Louis is said to have spent more time golfing than training. Schmeling, meanwhile, trained intently. When Louis and Schmeling finally met in Yankee Stadium, Schmeling defeated Louis in the 12th round.

Louis nevertheless went on to fight James Braddock for the world championship. Louis won that fight, but declared afterwards: "I don't want to be called champ until I whip Max Schmeling." Schmeling, meanwhile, became Adolf Hitler's poster boy for the superiority of the Aryan race and was a national hero in Germany.

After trading taunts for months, Louis and Schmeling finally met for a rematch in June, 1938. Louis trained intently for this bout, which was fought in front of a crowd of 70,000 people in Yankee Stadium. A record 70 million people tuned-in on the radio to listen to the fight.

The fight lasted 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Louis knocked Schmeling down 3 times, after which his trainer threw in the towel. Schmeling only managed to land two punches in the entire fight.

Louis' victory over Schmeling made Joe Louis America's first African American national hero. As Louis' son would later explain, "What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black. By winning, he became white America’s first black hero.”