Joe Louis was a man of great stature, a role model, and, for his time, he was what the black community needed him to be. It is nearly impossible to take the character of today’s athletes, like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, and compare them to the reflection of boxer Joe Louis. Joe Louis began his credible journey on June 19, 1936 during the times when America was struggling with racial equality he won his first of 27 fights. However, having a black heavyweight champion meant the black community would move upward and be successful and just as productive as white America. Although Joe Louis was not the first black heavyweight champ, he was still highly favored amongst his people and intended to execute the necessary duties to deliver a message demanding equal opportunity to whites from the black community. Louis did not doubt that he could win. To be a contender for a heavyweight title Louis had to first defeat Max Schmeling. People paraded and praised Louis months before the actual fight. They truly believed in this man of color and when in the boxing ring Joe Louis would always represent the African American fighting the whites for equality. The pressure was thick but maybe the community and Louis were over-confident. No one assumed he would have difficulty in the bout but with his lack of training Joe Louis experienced the greatest upset after being defeated in 12 rounds. Joe Louis’ defeat represented African American defeat entirely. When he went down “all of the hopes, the dreams, the desires and the beliefs of equality went out in one single evening with one single fight,” says Louis’ son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr. A year later after properly training with the same weight of the black community on his back he earned his title against James Braddock for heavyweight champion. Just to imagine the country in the 1930s elated and rejoicing over black victory in a