Louis had one of his greatest moments on June 22, 1938, when he faced Max Schmeling, one of Nazi Germany's proudest symbols of supposed Aryan superiority. Louis knocked Schmeling out, and won the admiration of many Americans who saw this triumph as the ultimate debunking of Hitler and his racist theories.

This portrait by Betsy Graves Reyneau was one of a series of likenesses of noted African Americans done for the Harmon Foundation.

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, gift of the Harmon Foundation