He also took on the role in a 2000 stage production of The Great White Hope, a play which also chronicled Johnson’s rise to fame amid his marriage to first wife Etta Terry Duryea in 1911, who was white.
Even if you’ve been keeping up with Mahershala Ali’s career for some time, you might not know that this isn’t the first time the actor has played Jack Johnson.
Johnson was the heavyweight champion from 1908 through 1915, and came under fire many times for opening a desegregated restaurant and nightclub, and his many public relationships with white women.