The fight had racial as well as political undertones . Much of black America pinned its hopes on the outcome of this Joe Louis fight and his other matches , seeing Louis ' success as a vehicle for advancing the cause of African Americans everywhere . Poet and author Maya Angelou , among others , recounted her recollection of the Louis-Carnera fight . She had listened to the fight over the radio in her uncle 's country store in rural Arkansas . While Louis was on the ropes , My race groaned . It was our people falling . It was another lynching , yet another black man hanging on a tree . ... this might be the end of the world . If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help . It would all be true , the accusations that we were lower types of human beings . Only a little higher than the apes ... Conversely , when Louis won the fight , emotions were unbounded : Champion of the world . A Black boy . Some Black mother 's son . He was the strongest man in the world . People drank Coca-Cola like ambrosia and ate candy bars like Christmas . In his autobiography , Schmeling himself confirmed the public 's reaction to the outcome , recounting his ambulance ride to the hospital afterward : " As we drove through Harlem , there were noisy , dancing crowds . Bands had left the nightclubs and bars and were playing and dancing on the sidewalks and streets . The whole area was filled with celebration , noise , and saxophones , continuously punctuated by the calling of Joe Louis ' name . " Reaction in the mainstream American press , while positive toward Louis , reflected the implicit racism in the United States at the time . Lewis F. Atchison of '' The Washington Post '' began his story : " Joe Louis , the lethargic , chicken-eating young colored boy , reverted to his dreaded role of the ' brown bomber ' tonight " ; Henry McLemore of the United Press called Louis " a jungle man , completely primitive as any savage , out to destroy the thing he hates . " Although Schmeling rebounded professionally from the loss to Louis ( winning the European Heavyweight Title in 1939 by knocking out Adolf Heuser in the 1st round ) , the Nazi regime would cease promoting him as a national hero . Schmeling and Nazi authorities grew further in opposition over time . During the Kristallnacht of November 1938 , Schmeling provided sanctuary for two young Jewish boys to safeguard them from the Gestapo . Conversely , as a way of punishing Schmeling for his increasingly public resistance , Hitler drafted Schmeling into paratrooper duty in the German Luftwaffe . After brief military service and a comeback attempt in 1947 – 48 , Schmeling retired from professional boxing . He would go on to invest his earnings in various post-War businesses . His resistance of the Nazi party elevated his status once again to that of a hero in post-war Germany
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling