Africville Museum celebrates legendary boxer
STEVE MCKINLEY
Attendees cheered as the curtain dropped Saturday on a mural at the Africville Museum celebrating the 150th birthday of one of Africville’s icons, boxing legend George Dixon.
Dixon, born in the Black community in Halifax’s north end on July 29, 1870, moved away to Boston when he was 16 to pursue his boxing dreams.
In 1888, he became the first Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport when he took the world bantamweight title.
He was also the first Canadian-born boxing champion.
He would go on to claim the featherweight title and paperweight title in subsequent years, becoming the first man to win more than two world boxing titles.
He is widely credited for inventing shadowboxing, a training practice ubiquitous among modern boxers.
At his peak, Dixon used his clout to push for Black civil rights, like making sure promoters reserved seats at his fights for Black fans. Dixon died in New York in 1908. His commemorative mural had humble beginnings — as a brown shipping container on the Africville Museum grounds that museum executive director Juanita Peters considered an eyesore.
In keeping with a long-term concept of adding outdoor art installations to the museum grounds, she decided to commission the mural of Dixon.
“It’s the 150th anniversary of Dixon’s birth,” she said. “What’s more fitting than a tribute to Africville’s most famous son.”
“This was something that was really ugly, and now it’s a piece of the Africville story.”