Khidr Abdun-Nur

Dr.Elizebeth Hudson
11/18/15
Hon 1000

Joe Louis also known as The Brown Bomber was the nations first black sports hero
widely acclaimed and admired by whites (1). He was born in Alabama, and moved to Detroit
with his father during the Great Migration. By his teenage years he had become a very talented
boxer and not before long WW2 had started he had become a symbol for America against the
Germans. After his winning in the match against Germany, his victory was not just for him but
for all of America. Shortly after his win, The Joe Louis monument also known as The Fist was
made in dedication to him, is a 24-foot-long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high
pyramidal framework, a prizewinning punch thats forever suspended in time. Not only was one
of the very few monuments dedicated to African Americans in America placed in Detroit, It also
represents the power of his punch both inside and outside the ring, because of his efforts to
fight Jim Crow laws, the fist was symbolically aimed toward racial injustice (1), and yet it
undoubtedly stirred more racial tensions between the White and African Americans in Detroit.
Therefore, the fist empowers the African Americans and it gave them something tangible to have
a sense of pride of that everyone could see. Thus recreating struggles formed from racism as a
already dominantly inspired race (Whites) are now feeling intimidated by the African Americans
using the fist as their symbol of pride and power.
This monument was one of the few which was dedicated to African Americans in 1980s.
A handful of monuments that honor African Americans in the urban public, and certainly no
single monument can fill in the gaps of the memory and history of African Americans and racial
relations in the United States (2). This fist can be looked at by African Americans together as a
shining victory. Like the state of the African Americans history Joe Louis took blows, but he

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Dr.Elizebeth Hudson
11/18/15
Hon 1000

endured with perseverance and determination. This inspired more African Americans that they
can be more than what limits has been set on them by society. The fist solidifies this idea of
moving forward and breaking racial barriers. For the African Americans in Detroit and it is
displayed publically to everyone placed in the middle of downtown. Graham referred to the
sculpture as a battering ram. As the monument is a physical manifestation of what the African
Americans were feeling and taking all of their history and thrusting forward; for them being able
to see this encouraged the idea to break the racial boundaries.
The fist was also used as a means to fight against racism. The fist is pointed forward, Joe
Louis was against racism and believed in equality and for his race and for the country that didnt
give his people human rights. My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another
lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A
Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy
swamps. ... If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help (3). . He fought through the Jim
Crow laws which denied African Americans their rights in living in America and in the major
athletic leagues. Not only was the fist against racial injustice in Detroit, or even America but also
around the world for his win against his German opponent to break down the thought that the
Germans were racially superior. The fist gives major contribution that black Americans were
capable of making it.
Though all the good it symbolically caused for the African American the racial tensions
grew. As a consequence for it being widely open to the public it invites individual judgement.
The power of the fist, the way it hangs and the direction it points lead to varying interpretations.
Why doesn't it have a boxing glove if its for Joe Louis? Is it aimed at the South, or at Canada?

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Dr.Elizebeth Hudson
11/18/15
Hon 1000

What is it fighting? People have said it invokes everything from lynching to the black power
movement. It was taken as far as vandalism of the monument itself. Two young white males,
believed that it was a good idea to paint the fist white and leaving a note saying "Courtesy of
Fighting Whities"(6). From the fact of it being a fist instead of an open hand is why many of the
White Americans in Detroit saw this as an intimidating figure. Which causes racial backlash
ending in a result of the defacing of the Joe Louis Fist and added racial tensions.
The Joe Louis monument can be seen as a symbol for fighting racial injustice,
empowerment of the black community not only in Detroit but in all of America, and yet it still
can be seen as an intimidating figure for how a fist is used to harm. A fist can be used to harm
but it also can be used to protect, pertaining Joe Louis fists was used to protect, inspire, and fight
through social discriminations and for rights. The fist is a symbol for all Africans Americans to
move forward and to not be afraid to break the boundaries.

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Dr.Elizebeth Hudson
11/18/15
Hon 1000

References
1) "Fist of a Champion - Detroit's Monument to Joe Louis"
2) Dickinson, Greg, Carole Blair, and Brian L. Ott. Places of public memory: The rhetoric
of museums and memorials. University of Alabama Press, 2010.
3) White, John. "How Joe Louis Became a Symbol of the Fight against Racism." People's
World. N.p., n.d. Web.
4) Holman, Valerie. "Public Art: the problems and potential of multiple meanings."Journal
of Art & Design Education 16.2 (1997): 127-135.
5) Fisher, Philip. "Democratic social space: Whitman, Melville, and the promise of
American transparency." Representations (1988): 60-101.
6) Zaslow, Jeffery. "In Detroit, a Blow To 'The Fist' Touches A Sensitive Nerve." WSJ. The
Wallstreet Journal, 04 Mar. 2004. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
7) Marback, Richard. "Detroit and the closed fist: Toward a theory of material rhetoric
1." Rhetoric Review 17.1 (1998): 74-92.