On this date in 1914 Joseph Louis Barrow was born in La Fayette, Alabama. The son of an Alabama sharecropper, great grandson of a slave, great great grandson of a white slave owner became the heavyweight champion of the world. Louis was champion of the world in an era when the heavyweight champion was, in the minds of many, the greatest man in the world. His championship reign, from 1937 until he retired in 1949, is the longest of any heavyweight.

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