After Beau’s thrashing by Gil Turner, his trainer, Sid Bell, who had rejoined Beau’s camp, finally convinced Beau to retire from boxing. He spoke earnestly to Beau. “Beau, you got the heart of a lion, the strength of an elephant the punch of a lightning bolt—but your legs are tissue paper. Promise me you won’t fight anymore.”1 Bell stressed to Beau that his legs were just too weak. Jack had suffered through multiple operations on both knees. He just wasn’t as competitive as he used to be and at his age and condition was prone to serious injury. With his trainer’s advice and back to back losses to Gil Turner, Jack, at thirty years of age, retired in 1951. Jack’s career appeared over. His record was 80–23–4. Beau and his trainers, as well as his longtime manager and friend Chick Wergeles, parted ways.
Beau stuck around New York for a couple of months. In addition to the shooting galleries and dime movies, Beau found relaxation attending shows and movies at the Apollo Theater. Opened in 1914, the neo-classical theater became a landmark in the Harlem section of New York City. Although African Americans were not originally allowed to attend or perform at the Apollo, that changed after Sidney Cohen and Morris Sussman purchased the theater in 1934 and marketed entertainment toward the predominantly African American citizens living in Harlem. The Apollo Theater was instrumental in the development of numerous musical genres, such as the blues, gospel, jazz, R&B, swing, and soul. Outstanding performers were commonplace, featuring such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan, Josephine Baker, and James Brown.
Over the next couple of months, Beau was frequently spotted at the Apollo holding hands with his lady friend Ruby Valdez. It could have been a reason for his recent domestic troubles, but Beau was captivated by Ruby. In addition to attending the movies and Saturday night shows, the couple were regulars at Amateur Hour on Wednesday nights. Some of the best up and coming artists vied for prizes at Wednesday night’s Amateur Hour. Begun in 1934, the Amateur Hour was one of the Apollo’s most popular ongoing shows during the 40s and 50s. One of the first winners was 15-year-old Ella Fitzgerald. Over the years, Amateur Hour contestants included numerous artists and musicians, such as the Esquires, James Brown, Sarah Vaugh, Dinah Washington, and Ruth Brown.
Within weeks of Beau’s retirement, the press aired his financial difficulties again, broadcasting that he was broke. Future Pulitzer Prize winner (1956) and distinguished sports journalist for The New York Times Arthur Daley (1904–1974) reported that Beau Jack, at thirty years of age, was broke because his associates swindled his money. “He’s broke,” Daley wrote, “because he was robbed of his heritage, his earnings squandered away.2 This is one of the most contemptible episodes in a sport that has had far more than its share of disgraceful actions by the thieves and hoodlums who infest its outer edges,” penned Daley. “The Beau can read now and his favorite book is the Bible. Perhaps he can take some comfort from the passage relating to the man who fell among thieves. It’s the only comfort he has left.”3
Adding credence to Daley’s story, three months after his final fight with Gil Turner, Beau was reportedly receiving $55 a week from the National Sports Alliance Boxers’ Pension Fund. Formed in New York City on December 11, 1921, largely through the work of New York Senator Jimmy Walker, the National Sports Alliance’s offered assistance to indigent boxers. Jack Dempsey and his manager Jack Kearns were among the initial members. Members paid dues, and surcharges were added to ticket prices to aid the Alliance and its efforts.
Back Home in Augusta
Beau left New York and was back in Augusta by 1952, where he reconciled with his first wife, Josephine. Much of his time was spent tending his small farm off of New Savannah Road. Yet, boxing was in his blood. Beau may have retired from his career, but he was still in demand. As a former world champion, Beau was often called upon to referee bouts around the area. For instance, in March he traveled to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he refereed a preliminary match before the main event between Rib Bill Wilson and Guard Wyatt. The appreciation and applause he received from his fans were priceless to Beau Jack.
As was customary, in early April, Jack was back at the Augusta National, shining golfers’ shoes during the Masters Tournament. Beau was once again a bootblack. Apparently, Beau not only shined shoes and waited on golfers, but he was also an excellent masseur. While attending the 1952 Masters Tournament, sportswriter John Wheeler had the pleasure to experience one of Beau’s massages. Wheeler asked Bowman Milligan if there was anyone at the clubhouse that could give him a rub down. Wheeler recalls the incident in his own words.
“Beau will take care of you,” replied Bowman. I looked a little puzzled. “I mean Beau Jack, the old lightweight champion,” he explained. “He gave Gene Tunney one every day he was here, and he claimed they were the best he’d ever had.”
What was good enough for Tunney wasn’t too good for Wheeler, so I stretched out on the table. He had come the full circle, and then was back where he started from in the locker room of the golf club. He is a polite, genial, modest man with a ready smile, and an excellent masseur.4
Beau Jack, the pleaser, knew how to nurture the guests at the Augusta National.
Wheeler questioned Beau how he made out financially from his boxing career. Beau replied, “Oh, I did all right. Managed to save some money and didn’t wind up punchy.”5 After asking around, Wheeler was told that Beau “finished up with about $75,000 and received an income of $150 to $200 a month.”6 Of course, this information conflicted with earlier press reports that Beau was broke.
As the days went by, Jack continued to yearn for boxing. On a gloomy, warm, humid day in April, following the conclusion of the 1952 Masters Tournament, Beau began contemplating a return to boxing. Stan Hochman, a reporter for the Augusta Chronicle, related it to “a salmon returning to its spawning grounds for it was here that Beau Jack got his start.”7 Beau was still in good shape, but his years in the ring had taken their toll on him. He was ten pounds over his fighting weight. He was scared above his eyebrows from all the cuts suffered in the ring, and his vision was waning. Scar tissue covered his left knee, which had been broken twice. Was a comeback feasible? Ironically, it was Beau’s former manager Bowman Milligan that assisted Beau in mapping out a return route.
In late May, Beau Jack announced that he was resuming his boxing career. In an interview with Bill Ferguson of The Times, Beau was optimistic. “I’m just 31 and that’s not too old, is it?” questioned Beau. “I’ve just gotta’ make a comeback…. I’m still in good shape and I been workin’ out regular. I know I can come around…. I’ll be back, it’s in my blood.”8 Beau was ready to mount a comeback, but was the boxing world ready for him?
Determined, Beau traveled to New York to obtain his boxing license from the New York State Athletic Commission. Before permission could be granted, Beau was required to undergo a physical examination by the Commission’s physician, Dr. Ira McCown. After completing the physical, Dr. McCown gave his report to the Commission. The Commission consulted with Dr. McCown and carefully reviewed Beau’s physical record before reaching a decision. Citing his previous knee injuries and the probability for further harm, on November 21, 1952, the NYSAC denied Beau’s request for a boxing license. Beau was heartbroken but as the man he was, took the rejection in stride.
Being denied a boxing license, Jack returned to Augusta and opened up a barbecue restaurant, Beau Jack’s Drive-In, located at the intersection of New Savannah Road and Molly Pond Road. Nevertheless, even though Jack had his family and restaurant in Augusta, he just couldn’t seem to settle down. During the early summer of 1953, Beau headed to Florida, where he found employment at the glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach, shining shoes.
After the summer season, Beau returned to Augusta, where he again turned his attention to boxing, this time as a trainer. Not only was Jack able to spend time in the gym, but he was also able to give back to his sport by instructing young boxers. He worked with fighters such as Aman Peck of Hartford, Connecticut, and Eddie Green of Kannapolis, North Carolina, as well as several Augusta boxers, including Claude Chapman, James Bussey, the Tornado Kid, and Raymond Jones.
Beau was once again back at the Augusta National for the 18th Masters Tournament held on April 8-12, 1954. It was a memorable tournament with Sam Snead defeating Ben Hogan in a Monday playoff. On the eve of the playoff between Snead and Hogan, Beau traveled to the Asheville Auditorium, as two of his pupils, Eddie Green (29–13–1) and Raymond Jones (5–6–2), were on the Monday night boxing card. Eddie Green met Jackie O’Brien (58–12–7) in the featured welterweight bout, and Raymond Jones faced Joe Green (33–14–2). With Beau working the corner and shouting directives, both of his fighters scored victories that night. Two weeks later, Beau was at the Armory in Charlotte with Eddie Green. Eddie faced Gene Burton (54–20–10), a former number one welterweight contender. Green earned a unanimous decision over the formidable Burton.
Later that summer, Beau made local headlines, but not of the kind he was used to when he was boxing. At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 29, 1954, his restaurant, Beau Jack’s Drive-In, was raided by a county racket squad. Upon entering, the squad found nine men, including Jack, playing a game of “skin.” The men were arrested and charged with gambling. One of the men was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Authorities confiscated $9 in cash and three decks of cards. Beau was fined $18 for gambling and $28 for running a gaming house.
Racial Segregation in Schools Declared Unconstitutional
For years, Americans lived in a racially segregated life under the “separate but equal” doctrine set forth in 1896 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. According to seven of the Supreme Court Justices, as long as public facilities were equal for blacks and whites, racially segregated facilities were permissible. There was one lone dissent, that of Justice John Marshall Harlan.
[I]n view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.
His dissent on the grounds that all citizens, black or white, are equal before the law would set the stage for the civil rights movement, but it would take five decades.
Times were challenging for black Americans as the civil rights movement began in the late 1940s, seeking to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. At the time, South Carolina required segregation in public schools. The state’s constitution required separate schools for white and “colored” children and prohibited integration of schools. Of course, education facilities for black students were significantly inferior to those of white students.
In Clarendon County, South Carolina, busing was provided for the white schools but not black schools. In addition to having separate and significantly inferior facilities, black children had to walk to school, sometimes many miles. Harry Briggs, a service station attendant, and his wife Elizabeth Briggs, a maid, rallied 21 other families to find a bus for their children. When they asked school superintendent R. M. Elliot for the use of one of the 33 buses owned by Clarendon County, he refused.
In 1949, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed to assist the Briggses and other black families in Clarendon County to not only obtain school transportation but to seek equal facilities and educational opportunities. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court found segregation lawful by a vote of 2–1. On appeal to the Supreme Court in 1952 as Briggs v. Elliott, evidence was provided by Clarendon County that progress had been made on equalizing facilities. Therefore, the case was remanded back to the district court. In the subsequent district court hearing, Thurgood Marshall argued that as long as segregation existed, schools would be unequal. Inevitably, the case was appealed back to the Supreme Court, where it would become the first of five cases combined into Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
In one of the other cases, Oliver L. Brown, a welder and assistant pastor, filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas after his daughter was denied entrance to Topeka’s all-white elementary schools. His daughter Linda Brown, a third-grade student, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, a mile away. A white elementary school was only seven blocks from her house. The NAACP directed Brown to attempt to enroll her in the closest school, i.e., the white school. Needless to say, enrollment was refused.
Brown subsequently filed suit against the Board of Education. Arguing that schools for black children were not equal to those for white children, Brown asserted that segregation violated the “equal protection clause” of the 14th Amendment, prohibiting any state to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
In all, five cases were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education as heard before the Supreme Court—Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas), Briggs v. Elliott (South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia), Gebhart v. Belton (Delaware), and Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.). In a landmark opinion, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Although the decision would become a cornerstone of the civil rights movement, many schools remained segregated.
Rosa Parks
Another critical moment in the civil rights movement occurred on December 1, 1955. A black seamstress named Rosa Parks (1913–2005) was coming home from work on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Blacks were expected to sit in the back of the bus, with the front reserved for whites. When a white man got on the bus at one of its stops, there were no seats left in the “white” section. Therefore, the driver demanded riders in the first row of the “colored” section to stand. Three of the riders stood, but Rosa Parks refused. She was arrested and found guilty of violating segregation laws. Rosa Parks’ defiance led to a year-long Montgomery bus boycott led by the young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosa Parks suddenly became a national symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end racial segregation.
1. Will Grimsley, “Beau Jack Runs Gamut,” Ithaca Journal, January 17, 1975, 12.
2. J. Suter Kegg, “Tapping on the Sports Keg,” Cumberland Evening Times, June 1, 1951, 16.
3. Arthur Daley, “Larceny at Its Worst,” New York Times, May 25, 1951, 39.
4. John Wheeler, “The Old Second Guesser,” Anderson Herald, January 30, 1952, 3.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Scott Hochman, “Beau Jack Ponders Long Comeback Road,” Augusta Chronicle, April 27, 1952, 1C.
8. Bill Ferguson, “Beau Jack Confident about Ring Comeback,” Times, May 27, 1952, 21.