Joe Louis
Do you know who this is?
It's Joe Louis, world champion heavyweight boxer and Saddlebred enthusiast!
In the early 1940s, Louis owned a farm near Detroit and hired prominent Black trainer Henry Jennings. Louis also organized an all-Black horse show, creating an opportunity to compete free from discrimination. As with Thoroughbred racing, there was plenty of Black talent in the Saddlebred world in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Photo credits (bottom row): American Saddlebred Museum
