Joe Louis: American Folk Hero

Title: Joe Louis: American Folk Hero

Author: Wiggins, William H., Jr.

Publication: Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1991.

Description: A biography of the boxer Joe Louis, inscribed by the author to Judge Constance Baker Motley and a family member, probably her brother: "To Judge and Mr. Baker, Thanks for a lovely dinner experience." Presumed first edition, no later printings noted. Black-and-white illustrations. Stapled in pictorial card wrappers. 9 x 6 inches; [4], 40 pages. Wrapper with moderate soiling and spotting to top edge of text block, but a clean interior. Very Good.

Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005) made history as the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, securing victories in nine of her ten historic civil rights cases. She served as Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, as a New York State senator, and as Borough President of Manhattan in New York City. The author William H. Wiggins, Jr. (1934-2016) was a professor of African American and African diaspora studies and of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University and the first Black man to receive a PhD in folklore from that institution.