The prospect of being "no-platformed" has persuaded me to downtone the authenticity of the racist language typical of this Jim Crow era I would otherwise have used in this.

 

From the day he was the Champ he had a target on his back -

The price he paid for whupping Tommy Burns;

They tried to find The Great White Hope to end the reign of Jack.

 

He dumped him on the canvas like he’d hit him with an axe

The crowd of white folks shocked and taciturn;

From the day he was the Champ he had a target on his back -

 

The nation went in uproar at a champion who’s black;

The daemon in the soul of Dixie yearns

“Who will be the Great White Hope to end the reign of Jack?”

 

Across the land there’s murder of the coloureds in attacks

As effigies of Johnson hang and burn;

From the day he was a champ he had a target on his back.

 

From out of his retirement they then brought James Jeffries back -

The Undefeated making his return

To prove the White Man better and to end the reign of Jack.

 

In round 15 they stopped the fight with Jeffries on the rack

America reluctantly now learns

There was no Great White Hope that day to end the reign of Jack

But Johnson learned he’d always have a target on his back.