A black allegedly Fascist boxer
who won the European middleweight crown in 1928 was airbrushed
out of Italian history by the Fascist regime, a programme airing
on RAI state broadcaster Friday says.
Leone Jacovacci (aka John Douglas Walker and Jack Walker) an
Afro-Italian born in a village in the then Belgian Congo in
1902, is believed to have had Fascist sympathies, says the
programme, Il Duce's Boxer, airing on Rai Storia at 21:10
Friday night.
Jacovacci, who was technically superb and tenacious, spoke
three languages perfectly, Italian, French and English.
He was deprived of his rightful place in Italian sporting
history because of the colour of his skin, the programme
by Tony Sacucci says.
As for his political ideas, the programme says that Jacovacci
"may not have been an out-and-out Fascist, but he certainly
wasn't an anti-Fascist".
Before becoming a boxer Jacovaci had served briefly in the
British army.
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