On Oct. 17, 1912, a woman identified only as “Mrs. F. Cameron-Falconet” went to the Clark Street police station and, as the Tribune reported, asked the Chicago cops to rescue her daughter, 19 and white, “from the clutches of Jack Johnson, Negro heavyweight champion pugilist.” That opened a racial...

There are so many egos and there is so much manipulative behavior, dishonesty (and dishonesty about the dishonesty) that it is very difficult to explain it as a straightforward history.