Chapter OnePoor Boy Halley's Comet burned across the Mississippi
night like a brakeman'slantern during June 1910, leading to
suicides and whispers ofArmageddon. Up north in Hartford, the
Connecticut Yankees werelamenting the recent passing of the
brightest star in the Americanliterary firmament, Mark Twain. In
New York City, W. E. B. Du Bois,anguished about race riots and
lynchings around the nation, waspreparing the first issue of The
Crisis, the magazine of the newNational Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. In Reno,Jack Johnson, the first
black heavyweight boxing champion, wastraining for his July 4th
title defense against former champ JimJeffries, "The Great White
Hope," a spectacle that would lead tomore race riots. In
Washington, D.C., Congress was debating the MannWhite Slave
Traffic Act, which would ban "the interstatetransportation of
women for immoral purposes"-a law specificallytargeted at
Johnson that would soon send him to jail for travelingwith his
white girlfriend. Across the Sou