Episode Details

Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round of their 1938 rematch and became the most important Black American athlete before Jackie Robinson — a man who carried the hopes of an entire race into the ring against a fighter the Nazis had claimed as proof of Aryan superiority. Then the IRS came for him. The taxes on his wartime charity fights, combined with penalties and interest, created a debt he could never repay, and the greatest heavyweight champion of his era died owing the government more than he had ever earned.

This episode traces Louis from Alabama poverty through the Schmeling fights, his wartime service, and the financial destruction that turned a national hero into a cautionary tale about how America treats the people it uses up.

• Louis's rise from Alabama poverty to the heavyweight championship of the world
• The two Schmeling fights and their role as proxy battles against Nazi racial ideology
• His wartime service, charity fights, and the tax trap the IRS set with his generosity
• The financial ruin, the greeter job at Caesars Palace, and America's abandonment of its hero