Len Johnson

Len Johnson was born in Clayton, Manchester, in 1902, the son of a Sierra Leonean merchant seaman and an Irish mother whose interracial marriage drew real hostility — his mother was once attacked in the street and permanently disfigured because of it. Johnson took up boxing and quickly proved himself one of the most skilled middleweights of his generation, known for an educated left hand and a slippery defence that kept his face largely unmarked across a thirteen-year career.

In 1911, then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill had enforced a colour bar preventing fights between Black and white boxers for major British titles, a rule that remained in place throughout Johnson's career. Despite outpointing British and European champions and being dubbed the “uncrowned champion” by the national press in 1928, Johnson was told any victory in a title bout would simply not be recognised. He did win the Empire (now Commonwealth) middleweight title in Australia in 1926, becoming the first non-white boxer to hold a major title during the colour bar era — but never received a shot at the domestic crown he had clearly earned.

After retiring, Johnson didn't stop fighting — he simply changed arenas. In September 1953, he and two friends were refused service at a Manchester pub because of his race. Rather than walk away, Johnson used the incident as a platform, organising resistance that led to the pub's colour bar being overturned and helping found Manchester's anti-racist ‘New International Club.’ His activism directly influenced the eventual repeal of boxing's colour bar in 1947, paving the way for Britain's first Black boxing champion, Dick Turpin, the following year.