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From the author of the critically acclaimed In Black and White The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., comes another illuminating socio-historical narrative of the twentieth century, this one spun around one of the most iconic figures of the fight game, Sugar Ray Robinson.Continuing to set himself apart as one of our canniest cultural historians, Wil Haygood grounds the spectacular story of Robinsons rise to greatness within the context of the fighters life and times. Born Walker Smith, Jr., in 1921, Robinson had an early childhood marked by the seething racial tensions and explosive race riots that infected the Midwest throughout the twenties and thirties. After his mother moved him and his sisters to the relative safety of Harlem, he came of age in the vibrant post-Renaissance years.