A map of Galveston, Texas, circa 1904 ... end of the island in Galveston's racially-mixed Twelfth Ward. As a boy, Jack Johnson was a part of the racially mixed 11th Street and Avenue K gang ...

According to Johnson's 1927 autobiography, he married Marry Austin, a black girl from Galveston, Texas, in 1898 ... She was the first "Mrs. Jack Johnson," but far from the last.

But in 1908, 39 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, there was Jack Johnson ... himself from the docks of Galveston, Texas, to early 20th-century ...

But in 1908, 39 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, there was Jack Johnson ... himself from the docks of Galveston, Texas, to early 20th-century ...