Ken Burns’s documentary profiles the first African-American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports—Heavyweight Champion of the World—and his struggle, in and out of the ring, to live his life as a free man. Despite his humble beginnings as the son of former slaves in Galveston, Texas, Jack Johnson entered the brutal and largely segregated world of professional boxing, where, in turn-of-the century America, “Heavyweight Champion of the World” was an exclusively “white title.” Through talent and determination, Johnson was able to climb up through the professional ranks and emerge as a controversial national sports figure. Although outside the ring Johnson was determined to live his life regardless of the confines of his color, as a black fighter he seemed destined to be denied a shot at the title. Johnson refused to be ignored, though, and on December 26, 1908, in Sydney, Australia, Johnson destroyed white fighter Tommy Burns before a crowd of 20,000 stunned spectators, and became the first African-American to earn the title “Heavyweight Champion of the World.” Johnson’s victory over Burns was at that time, seen as a national disaster, and set in motion the worldwide search for “The Great White Hope” (a phrase coined by journalist Jack London), the white fighter who could return the heavyweight title to the white race.