Westland Theater on Second Street in the 1937 Flood

ID: 776 ~ Source: William J. Glockner, History of the Movie Theaters in Portsmouth, Ohio and Scioto County (2003). Center for Public History Archive, Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio. ~ Date: 1937

This file appears in: Portsmouth NAACP Protests Jim Crow at the Westland Theater: Screening of Joe Louis's “The Spirit of Youth” Sparks Controversy in 1938

This file appears in: Portsmouth NAACP Protests Jim Crow at the Westland Theater: Screening of Joe Louis's “The Spirit of Youth” Sparks Controversy in 1938

Portsmouth NAACP Protests Jim Crow at the Westland Theater: Screening of Joe Louis's “The Spirit of Youth” Sparks Controversy in 1938

By Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D.

In February 1938, Joe Louis was just starting his reign as heavy-weight champion of the world, having won the title the previous June when he knocked out James J. Braddock. Portsmouth, Ohio, like the…