A "Colored Palestine"

Black Salt Lake City residents might have celebrated cautiously amid the ten thousand,but the scene was much louder at the Douglas Club on Edison Street later that night. Johnson’s victory was praised in toast and every aspect of the champion’s performance and style was honored. After hoisting a few drinks, about twenty of the celebrants locked arms and paraded down Second South Street. Jubilant,the parade continued toward State Street until it encountered a group of white citizens who were less than thrilled.

The blacks bolted back to the safety of the Douglas Club. There, men promised that all black baby boys born before Christmas would carry Johnson’s name. In the vein of festive hyperbole unleashed by the victory, “it was suggested that Jack Johnson was the redeemer of the black race and was destined to lead the colored folk back into some kind of a colored Palestine.”

Here, page 19