Source B Louis knocks out Schmeling in the first round of the 1938 fight
On 22 June 1938 the African-American boxer Joe Louis defeated the German boxer Max Schmeling with a knockout blow in the first round. This was a comeback fight for Louis as Schmeling had defeated him in 1936. It was also a fight that came to embody much more than a simple boxing bout. Nazi Germany had lost to the democratic USA and once again an African-American athlete had upset racist views of ‘Aryan supremacy’. Joe Louis became a national hero after the match.
Extract from an article by boxing historian Bert Randolph Suger:
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