with money should use it in a way to injure his own people, in the eyes of those who are seeking to uplift his race and improve its conditions, I wish to say emphatically that Jack Johnson's actions did not meet my personal approval and I am sure they do not meet with the approval of the colored race." Johnson flouted conventions regarding the social and economic "place" of blacks in American society. As a black man, he broke a powerful taboo in consorting with white women and would verbally taunt men (both white and black) inside and outside the ring. When asked the secret of his staying power by a reporter who had watched a succession of women parade into, and out of, the champion's hotel room, Johnson supposedly said "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts". In 1911, Johnson, through an acquaintance, attempted to become a Freemason in Dundee. He was initiated as an Entered Apprentice at Forfar and Kincardine Lodge No 225 in the city. However, there was some opposition to his membership from within the lodge, but mainly from the Grand Lodge who tried to stop the initiation from going ahead due to most Grand Lodges in the USA threatening to withdraw their Scottish Grand Lodge representation if it did. The Forfarshire Lodge was suspended by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and Johnson's fees were returned to him and his admission was ruled illegal. In July 1912, Johnson opened an interracial nightclub in Chicago called Café de Champion. Johnson wrote two memoirs of his life: Mes combats in 1914 and Jack Johnson in the Ring and Out in 1927. In 1943, Johnson attended at least one service at the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, California. In a public conversion, while Detroit, Michigan, burned in race riots, he professed his faith to Christ in a service conducted by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. She embraced him as "he raised his hand in worship". Marriages Johnson engaged in various relationships, including three documented marriages. All of his documented wives were white. At the height of his career, Johnson was excoriated by the press for his flashy lifestyle and for having married white women. According to Johnson's 1927 autobiography, he married Mary Austin, a black woman from Galveston, Texas. No record exists of this marriage. While in Philadelphia in 1903, Johnson met Clara Kerr, a black prostitute. According to Johnson's