Frank Childs (born July 17, 1867, Texas; died June 20, 1936, Waukegan, Illinois[1]), "The Crafty Texan", was an African American boxer who fought professionally out of Chicago from 1892 to 1911 and twice held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship.

[2] He made his pro boxing debut on February 18, 1892 in Los Angeles against French Canadian George LaBlanche from Quebec, knocking him out in the third round.

In the intervening thirteen months before Armstrong gave him a shot for the title, Childs squared off on January 8, 1898 at Chicago's 2nd Regiment Armory against a boxer named Klondike (real name John Haines or John W. Haynes), so called because he was supposed to be a great find (evoking the Klondike Gold Rush).

Childs and Klondike would meet again, frequently, as African American boxers were forced to fight one another often due to the color bar.

On October 28 of that year, they met in a rematch in Chicago in which Childs retained the black heavyweight title by kayoing Haynes in the third round of a six-round contest.

Finally, he took back the Coloured World Heavyweight Championship legitimately from Byers on March 16, 1901 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, kayoing him in the 17th round of a 20-round fight.

He lost the coloured heavyweight title to Denver Ed Martin in a bout in Chicago on February 25, 1902, being out-pointed in a six-round contest.

Jack Johnson eliminated any pretensions Childs had to the colored crown when he beat him via TKO in the 12th round of a fight on October 21, 1902 in Los Angeles.

This history traces the advent and demise of the Championship, the stories of the talented professional athletes who won it, and the demarcation of the color line both in and out of the ring.