The Fight of His Life: Joe Louis’s Battle for Freedom During World War II

The boxing champion whose fight against the Nazis in and out of the ring made him a global icon

During the 1930s and 1940s, no African American athlete commanded the spotlight more than heavyweight boxer Joe Louis. His 1938 knockout victory over German Max Schmeling struck an early blow against Nazi Germany. But it was Louis’s service in the looming war that transformed him from a patriotic role model into history’s first prominent Black athlete turned activist.

In The Fight of His Life, award-winning sports historians Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts tell the story of heavyweight champion Joe Louis’s battles both in and out of the ring. Already world-famous at the outset of World War II, Louis enlisted in the army, serving as a goodwill ambassador and promoting unity across military bases that crackled with racial tension. Yet Louis’s experience with segregation in the army sparked his political awakening. As the war dragged on, he advocated for Black soldiers facing discrimination. Once the war ended, he joined veterans and civil rights activists to fight for voting rights and racial equality.

Expertly revising the life story of one of America’s most iconic Black athletes, Smith and Roberts’s biography celebrates Joe Louis’s forgotten fight against fascism abroad and racism at home.

Johnny Smith is the J. C. ＂Bud＂ Shaw Professor of Sports History at Georgia Tech. Author of Jumpman, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Randy Roberts is the 150th Anniversary Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana.

Together, they are coauthors of Blood Brothers, A Season in the Sun, and War Fever.