Len Johnson was a hero inside the ring and out. His defiance helped to inspire a generation of resistance against the racism that sought to prevent his champion status.

British legend Len Johnson (whos 117th birthday would have this week) would have appreciated this message of resilience, black man to black man. Boxer to boxer. Champ to champ.

You've probably heard of Muhammad Ali. But who was Len Johnson?

The world champion fighter, who stood up to racism

In a professional career lasting from 1922 to 1933, middleweight Johnson recorded no fewer than 92 wins. At his peak, no boxer stood between him and the World Championship.

But it wasn’t the boxers who would get in Johnson’s way. It was racism.

In 1929, the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) refused Johnson permission to contest the World Championship belt. Had he taken performance enhancing drugs? Had he done something outrageous in the ring?

Nope. Len didn't need enhancers to outperform anyone he faced.

In the eyes of the BBBC, the great outrage he had committed was to succeed as a black athlete against white athletes. In the age of empire, when millions of non-whites lived under a British jackboot, such an image of black talent could not be allowed.

It wasn’t the first time - and it wouldn’t be the last - that Len had been hit by racism. From his roots in Clayton, Manchester, as the son of a Sierra Leonean father and an Irish mother, racial discrimination was a backdrop to his life.

Len's mum, Margaret, suffered a violent street attack for marrying a 'colonial' which left her permanently scarred. Early 20^th century Britain wasn’t a welcoming place for its black citizens and those who associated with them.

But when Johnson went down, like Ali, he wouldn't stay down.

A man who refused to stay down and out - click to view our Muhammad Ali tea towel

Johnson fought racism, inside the ring and out

When racism stopped his career as a boxer, Len moved into politics to fight racism. In 1946, along with two veterans of the Spanish Civil War, he created the New International Society which was committed to "true internationalism; colonial liberation; the ending of racial discrimination; peace."

The New International landed some big punches for racial equality during its time, including its leadership of the successful 'Let Robeson Sing' campaign against the African-American folk legend’s travel ban (which was imposed for political reasons during the McCarthy years).

Len died, having worked much of his later life as a truck driver and part-time journalist, in 1974.

Now if I was a betting man, I would have put my money on Len Johnson whenever he entered a boxing ring – and not just out of loyalty to a fellow Mancunian.

I’d also put my money on you, and the vast majority of other Britons, to not ever have heard of him. And this is the motive behind the UK’s Black History Month.

In 1926, fighting in Australia, Len won the British Empire Middleweight Championship against Harry Collins, but when he returned home he learned that Tommy Milligan – a Scottish runner-up – had been given the title because Johnson didn’t have two white parents.

Black achievements, struggles, and grievances have always been silenced in British history by racists. The researcher of inter-war boxing records would find no British Empire Championship for Len Johnson.

Black History Month is about articulating these silences. About putting Len Johnson back on the podium. 

This blog post is itself an example of what this month can do (wow, meta!). It got me to discover and then read up on Len Johnson, to share his story with the rest of the Radical Tea Towel team, and now to share it with you.

Politically, Len was conscious of his place within a global and collective movement for black rights and liberation – hence his solidarity with Paul Robeson.

We don’t make a Len Johnson tea towel yet. But Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, Tutu, Martin Luther King and Mandela were comrades in his struggle - they all fought for their place at the kitchen table.

Remember Len Johnson. A real, British working-class hero has come back to memory for a few of us in Black History Month!

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