Harry Wills
Harry "The Black Panther" Wills (May 15, 1889 – December 21, 1958) was a heavyweight boxer who three times held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Many boxing historians consider Wills the most egregious victim of the "color line" drawn by white heavyweight champions after the title reign of Jack Johnson. Wills fought for over twenty years (1911–1932), was ranked as the number one challenger for the throne, but was denied the opportunity to fight for the title. Of all the black contenders between the reigns of Jack Johnson and Joe Louis as world heavyweight champions, Wills came closest to securing a title shot.
Read more about Harry Wills: Boxing Career, Retirement
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“All my life I’ve been running, from welfare officers, thugs, my father. See, there they are [the killers]. There on the bridge. I’m a dead man. Nosseros told me that. He told me. He said, “You got it all, but you’re a dead man, Harry Fabian.””
—Jo Eisinger, and Jules Dassin. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark)
“I have sought his aid—but if after endeavoring to do my best in the light which he affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)