Leonard Benker Johnson (22 October 1902 – 28 September 1974), known simply as Len among his admirers, and dubbed "Len Johnson" by the press, was a British boxer who competed from 1920 to 1933. He held the British Empire middleweight title, the first non-white boxer to hold a major title during the British colour bar era, de facto reigning from 20 February 1926 to 12 July 1926. He also held the Northern Area championships at middleweight and light-heavyweight, respectively. A strategic and intelligent boxer, Johnson was considered to be one of the best middleweights of his era. He was known for his exceptional boxing skill, using an educated left-hand, as well a slippery defence that made him difficult to hit, while leaving his features largely unmarked throughout his thirteen-year career. Additionally, Johnson possessed a very long reach and rather good height.
Johnson was regarded as one of the greatest middleweight boxers of his generation in the years between the world wars. As an amateur, Johnson learnt the fundamentals of boxing in the boxing booths of Bill Moore and Bert Hughes. After turning professional later in 1920, he defeated current and former champions, including former world welterweight champion Ted "Kid" Lewis in 1925. Due to then Home Secretary Winston Churchill's decision in 1911 to support a colour bar, he was banned from competing at both the Royal Albert Hall and National Sporting Club. Additionally, the British Boxing Board of Control would not sanction a championship bout with Johnson for the Lonsdale Belt, due to their Rule 24, which stated that title contestants "[...] must have two white parents", though despite this he defeated Harry Collins in Australia for the middleweight championship of the British Empire in 1926. Johnson became famous in Britain for his impressive victories, defeating European and British middleweight champion Roland Todd in 1927. In the same year, he also defeated future middleweight champion Len Harvey, and rounded up the decade thrashing European middleweight champion Leone Jaccovacci in 1928 and European light-heavyweight champion Michele Bonaglia in 1929.
Johnson was a major boxing figure of the mid-20th century Britain, and though he never held any titles, he was important activist in the labour movement in Manchester in the 1940s and 1950s. Following the Second World War, Johnson joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and was a key member until his death. He was a co-founder of the New International Club in Manchester, which provided a vehicle for black political and social self-organisation in the city and campaigning against racism at home and abroad, including organising a concert and a rally featuring his hero Paul Robeson in support of the Trenton Six, which were both attended by 10,000 people. He was instrumental in influencing the dissolving the British colour bar in 1947, wherein Dick Turpin became Britain's first Black boxing champion in 1948; the decolonisation of Africa taking place in the 1950s to 1970s, with Ghana becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European powers, led by Kwame Nkrumah, a delegate alongside Johnson at the 5th Pan-African Congress; and the implementation of the Race Relations Act 1965, making racial discrimination in public places unlawful.
Early life
Leonard Benker Johnson was born on 22 October 1902 in Clayton, Manchester, England, in the suburbs of Cottonopolis; he was the first child of Margaret (née Maher) and William Benker Johnson. He was born to an English mother of Irish descent and a Sierra Leone Creole father, making him mixed-race; and had two brothers, Albert and William, who were professional boxers, and one sister, Doris. His mother, Margaret, a pinafore machinist, was born in north Manchester; she was of Irish descent, with both her parents from Ireland. Johnson's maternal grandfather, William, was from Roscrea, County Tipperary. Johnson described his mother as "Irish and proud of it", and spoke of her vicious treatment, such as her being facially disfigured after a brutal racist street attack in which she was targeted for being the wife of a black man. Johnson's father, William, served with the British Army during the First World War, and worked for Elder Dempster Lines; he was a merchant seaman, boxer, and mechanical engineer from Sierra Leone, who had settled in Manchester after marrying Margaret. Though William was a middleweight, he claimed the heavyweight championship of the North of England in 1903, by beating Jack Lamb, who weighed 196 lbs, in two-rounds at Stalybridge, Manchester.