Originally Posted by John L Sullivan

In his own words expressed to an Australian newspaper about why he would not engage Jackson in the ring, Sullivan said the following:


“I vowed before the public years ago that I would never fight a colored man, because I thought, and still think, a white man is lowering himself too much when he faces a nigger. Why, God had a view in making them black, and I earnestly believe it was because they were always doomed to be our inferiors. Leaving this aside, if I ever lower myself so much as to step into the ring with this man Jackson, his aspirations will be cut short.”