On 9 December 1897 in Waterbury, Connecticut, he faced Harry Peppers in a title match for the World Colored Middleweight Championship.
[2] He took up US citizenship in 1917[3] (subscription required) Byers fought Frank Childs for the world colored heavyweight title on 14 September 1898 at the Lenox Athletic Club in New York City, winning on points in a 20-round bout.
Byers next fought Childs, who was billing himself as the "black heavyweight title" holder, on 16 March at the Star Athletic Club in Chicago.
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.
For decades the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a useful tool to combat racial oppression-the existence of the title a leverage mechanism, or tool, used as a technique to counter a social element, “drawing the color line.” Byers died in Boston City Hospital, either of pneumonia or a heart attack depending on conflicting reports, in 1937.