Jack Johnson won the heavyweight championship in 1908, and promptly became not a hero but the most hated man in the United States. Johnson was an African-American, you see, and he had the temerity to defeat a white boxer in the land of self-evident truths and inalienable rights. His victory prompted race riots, as whites waded into black neighborhoods, attacking anyone who happened in their way. Many Americans associate race riots with visions of ghettos in flames. The first race rights featured whites falling upon blacks.