The story of Len Johnson, the greatest British middleweight never to win a title, will receive its world première in Len Johnson “Fighter” at the King’s Arms in Salford, July 15 to 18 as part of The Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.
Len, born in Manchester in 1903, learnt to box at the travelling boxing booth and from his father, a former sailor from Sierra Leone who settled in Manchester.
Memorabilia at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford includes an article by Lord Lonsdale in Empire News that explains, after talks with Winston Churchill at the Home Office, that the legality of boxing was made conditional on having no “inter-coloured contests”.
Johnson continued his fight against discrimination and became increasingly radicalised, joining the Communist Party and standing as their candidate for Moss Side East six times between 1947 and 1962.