Posters Artwork Documents

Recruiting Poster

Featuring Joe Louis, world-famous heavy-weight boxer. The "Brown Bomber" is best known for his 1938 rematch with the German Max Schmeling. Schmeling had defeated Louis in their first match. Quoting an Internet site: A Nazi party publicist who issued statements that a black man could not defeat Schmeling, and that when Schmeling won, his prize money would be used to build tanks in Germany. The fight was held in Yankee Stadium before a crowd of over 70,000, and was broadcast by radio to millions of listeners throughout the world. The fight lasted two minutes and four seconds. Louis battered Schmeling with a series of swift attacks, forcing Schmeling against the ropes and giving him a paralyzing body blow. (Schmeling later claimed it was an illegal kidney punch.) Schmeling was knocked down three times, and only managed to throw two punches in the entire bout. On the third knockdown, Schmeling's trainer threw in the towel and referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight. Louis's victory was seen as a major victory for America. The German press recounted Schmeling's story that Louis had won the bout thanks to an illegal kidney punch. But in America, and throughout the world, Louis's victory was seen as a major rebuff of German claims of racial superiority. Ironically, while most people associate the German Schmeling with the Nazi party, he never joined it, and indeed once refused to accept an award from Adolf Hitler. His resistance of the Nazi party made him a hero in post-war Germany, and he became a life-long friend of Joe Louis. During during World War II, he became an American national hero a second time, partly because of his comment about the Allies, "We're gonna win 'cause we're on God's side"