(Special to The Root) — This is an excerpt from Vladimir Alexandrov's recent book The Black Russian, which tells the true story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, the son of former slaves in Mississippi who became a millionaire entrepreneur in czarist Moscow and the "Sultan of Jazz" in Constantinople. (For more on Thomas' incredible story, check out Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro column). One of Thomas' boldest moves was to invite Jack Johnson, the black American heavyweight-boxing champion of the world, to fight in Moscow.
An astonishing article here, about the meeting between Frederick Bruce Thomas, who made his millions in Moscow before the Revolution, and Jack Johnson, the famous American boxer. I have “The Black Russian” on my bookshelf, though I have not read it. Since I have returned to my enduring passion for Russian history, and since I have African ancestry myself, this would be a good time to familiarise myself on the limited, but most interesting history of black Americans and Africans who visited/lived in Russia and the subsequent USSR. A great article here by Vladimir Alexandrov.Â
