Joseph "Joe" Dorsey Jr. (July 16, 1935-October 20, 2004) was an American professional boxer, ending with a 29-6 record, who won a court case in the 1950s against Louisiana's law banning interracial boxing matches.
[2] Boxing in New Orleans, a hotbed of enthusiasm for the sport, was segregated as early as 1892 when a black boxer named George Dixon beat his Irish challenger, Jack Skelly.
In 1950, Governor Earl Long entrenched and widened the segregation policy, signing a law banning "dancing, social functions, entertainments, athletic training, games, sports or contests and other such activities involving personal and social contacts in which the participants or contestants are members of the White and Negro races."
In November 1958, a three-judge federal court in New Orleans found both the Louisiana law and the athletic commission's own rule against interracial bouts unconstitutional.
Writing the opinion, Judge John Minor Wisdom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the Louisiana law was "unconstitutional on its face in that separation of Negroes and whites based solely on their being Negroes and whites is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States," and that segregated boxing matches were no exception.