Wrestling with racism: New Jack brought real-life issues into the ring | Opinion

Aug. 5, 1994, was the "Night of Legends" for Smoky Mountain Wrestling in the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum. A night of celebrating the professional wrestlers who had made the city a fixture of the industry for decades. New Jack came to disrupt the pomp and circumstance by attacking the mostly white audience and the local chapter of the NAACP.

New Jack was born Jerome Young in 1963 and died in 2021. His wrestling career started in Memphis before his time with Smoky Mountain Wrestling, led by Jim Cornette. It was at SMW that New Jack began to blossom alongside his newly formed tag-team, The Gangstas, which included Mustafa Saed and future World Wrestling Entertainment star D'Lo Brown. Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, later known in the ring as "Kane," also wrestled at SMW.

“It seems like every time you get one of us that wanna be outspoken, you wanna silence them. You silenced Martin Luther King, you silenced Medgar Evers, and now you even tried to silence Arsenio Hall!” New Jack said at the Night of Legends.

Cornette had given New Jack the mission of infuriating the audience by talking about race. Real-life issues provided the catalyst for many of New Jack’s promos at SMW. Rodney King's beating led to the Los Angeles riots in 1992. "The Arsenio Hall Show," once a mainstay of pro wrestling, went off the air shortly after inviting Louis Farrakhan to be a guest in 1994. And O.J. Simpson’s trial was a case study on race and class.

Months before the Night of Legends, New Jack ignited crowds in Knoxville with every SMW episode. He did not see himself as the villain, as is the case with most "heels," the name given to bad guys in professional wrestling storylines as opposed to their counterpart: the "babyface." He placed the decay of society on the fans. He called the audience members racists and rednecks. He famously celebrated O.J. Simpson on one episode. The Gangstas even re-created the Rodney King beatdown in reverse by attacking perennial babyfaces the Rock 'n' Roll Express. His promo in August 1994 came after calls from concerned viewers. The calls prompted a disclaimer shown on SMW television shows to absolve it from any legal repercussions and to add to the story.

Great promos provide a psychoanalysis of the audience. “N-words” mixed in with the boos at the Coliseum proved some of New Jack’s points. Ironically, to taunt the villains, audience members also waved the Confederate flag at the Gangstas. Overzealous fans threatened the team with violence in more rural venues. Though he portrayed his character as a freedom fighter for all Black people, the Knoxville chapter of the NAACP became his target.

“A bunch of trained negroes as you call them. Y’all got them where you want them. You got these negroes in the NAACP in a cage!” he said.

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The narrative that led to New Jack’s attack was that the NAACP protested against him. The Knoxville branch has been fighting against racial discrimination for over a century since 1919. The branch in the 1990s, led by Dewey Roberts Jr., addressed segregation in Knox County schools almost 40 years after Brown v. Board of Education. Nationally, Roberts said, the NAACP critiqued the media whenever Black stereotypes appeared.

In reality, Roberts said, New Jack approached the NAACP about real-life discrimination, but Jerome Young admired the NAACP. New Jack did not or could not. Naming the NAACP as a foil wasn’t an indictment of the organization, but more of a target for his character. It was more C. Delores Tucker vs. Hip Hop. It was the Talented Tenth vs. the Poor Righteous Teachers.

Though a controversial figure, New Jack was a memorable figure in Knoxville. He brought “The Hate That Hate Produced” into the wrestling ring. And like any good storyteller, you can’t let the truth get in the way of a good tale.

Andre Canty is an East Knoxville native, writer and wanna-be powerlifter.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Pro wrestler New Jack's toughest opponent was racism