The seminal moment in his historic career came on a scorching Wednesday night in late June, 1938. 

With Europe – and the world – petering on the precipice of war, Joe Louis walked into Yankee Stadium on the month’s 22nd day to settle the first round of the heavyweight fight of good versus evil. 

The world wouldn’t have long to wait.  But moments into the highly-anticipated rematch, evil-reincarnate – the stooge of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party -- Max Schmeling lay clutched over on the canvas, as Louis, the great champion retreated to his corner to cheers that echoed throughout the nation. There stood America’s champion, our hero, Joe Louis.

That night, Joe Louis, with the hopes and dreams of a country, blacks and whites alike, on his shoulders, solidified himself as the United States first African-American hero.

The roots of the story, though, actually begin some 30 years earlier in Sydney, Australia, when Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns to win the heavyweight title.

With that victory, Johnson became the first African-American to win the title; his brash, cocky attitude, though, failed to endear him to the American public.  In a backlash to this perceived arrogance, the country’s focus – for most of his championship reign – remained on the search for "A Great White Hope" that would re-establish the dominance of the white athlete in the country's biggest sport.

Johnson's attitude produced a backlash that would make the rise of Joe Louis even more remarkable.  In essence, Louis had to erase the memory of Johnson, and then begin to create his own legacy, a legacy that would prove to be saturated with admiration.

By 1934, Joe Louis, who had won 50 of 54 amateur bouts, was ready to turn professional. With the stigma of Jack Johnson still attached to the black athlete, Louis steamrolled though the heavyweight class, all the while proving to be a study in class and dignity.

Along with his manager, John Roxborough, Louis laid out a course of action that would establish himself as a great fighter, while simultaneously winning over the public. The two even came up with "commandments" for them to follow. These included, among others, "Do Not Gloat."

Where Jack Johnson would show up an opponent, Louis let his fists do all the talking. For as gentile as he was outside the ring, he was a whirlwind inside of it – it was like he had a switch he could turn on and off.  He was the perfect fighter, except for one fatal flaw.

Louis won his first 27 fights before he ran into a German, Max Schmeling, in 1936. Schmeling had noticed that Louis dropped his left hand after throwing a punch, thus allowing Schmeling to come over the top with his powerful right.

In their first match, Louis was downed in 12 rounds by the more experienced fighter. Schmeling was hailed as a hero. There was a parade when he arrived home, and he dined with his country’s leader: Der Fuhrer. He had become a national hero – a symbol of Hitler's master race.

But despite his loss, Louis got a chance at the title. And after he pounded on champion ‘Cinderella Man’ James Braddock for eight rounds, Joe Louis had become the first black man since Johnson to attain the title.

He had become a sense of pride for the African-American community. What Mickey Mantle was to young boys in the 1950s, Joe Louis was to the black youth of the late thirties.  Malcolm X once said of Louis, "Every Negro boy old enough to walk wanted to be the next Brown Bomber." Joe Louis had become a hero among black America.

But in essence it was the developments over seas that would put the hopes and dreams of America as a whole squarely on the shoulders of Louis. As Adolph Hitler and the Nazi's rose to power in Germany, the upcoming battle between Louis and Max Schmeling for the title had become more than a boxing match, it was absolute good versus absolute evil. (Schmeling, of course, was not absolute evil. He was used by the Nazi party and ultimately betrayed by them, but at the time of the fight, he symbolized all that was the Nazi Party.)

In early 1938, Louis was greeted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the White House. "Joe," he said, "we're depending on these muscles for America."

That's a lot to put on a 24-year old kid, black or white. Louis later admitted he was extremely nervous before the bout.

"The whole damned county was depending on me," he said.

He was born the son of a sharecropper in Alabama, and now he was the symbol of freedom and democracy as he prepared to take on fascism armed with just his mind and fists.  With the ever-increasing political backdrop for the fight, Louis' quite confidence and reserved demeanor won over all but his most staunch critics.

When Schmeling arrived in New York for the fight, he was greeted by protesters screaming at him, chanting "Nazi! Nazi!" The animosity for his foe only strengthened the stock that the American people put into their champion.  Joe Louis could not lose this fight.

And so, on a muggy, humid, summer night Joe Louis stepped into the ring at Yankee Stadium with everything riding on his performance. Along with the hopes of a nation, Louis also carried the memory of the previous fight, where his weaknesses were exploited by the wicked – and oft-repeated – right hand from Schmeling.  He knew this time it wouldn't end like that. It couldn't end like that.

It took all of 124 seconds for Joe Louis to dispose of Schmeling. One punch he landed left Schmeling in such pain that he "screamed the loudest scream I have ever heard," reminisced one writer.

Louis came right out and took Schmeling to the ropes. Within seconds the symbol of Aryan race supremacy was pinned helplessly as Louis landed blow after blow. A titanic right sent Schmeling into a daze, necessitating the referee to momentarily step in. After another Louis flurry, Schmeling was on the canvas. He returned to his feet only to be met by yet another Louis combination that mercifully ended the bout. Schmeling threw a total of two punches in the fight.

Louis was the hero. And in essence, the whole black community in America walked a little taller that evening.  One of their own was the Ultimate Good Guy, the Ultimate Hero.

That night in June was described as Christmas, New Years, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one. Joe Louis was no longer a "black" fighter. He was just "our" fighter, "our" hero.

The line that always comes to mind when Joe Louis' name is brought up is from sportswriter Jimmy Cannon – in response to the line that Joe Louis was a credit to his race – Cannon responded "Joe Louis is a credit to his race, the human race." Louis transcended race. He transcended politics.

For one night we were all pulling for Joe Louis, and he wouldn't let us down. He would go on to become the first gentlemen of sports, the first black athlete that the country loved. Simply put, Joe Louis was America.

"One hundred years from now some historian may theorize, in a footnote at least, that the decline of Nazi prestige began with a left hook delivered by a former unskilled automotive worker..." wrote Heywood Broun in the New York World-Telegram.

Joe Louis had some sad moments as his life continued, that's clear.  But life is a series of moments, who can say that anyone's best moment was as great as that magical evening on June 22, 1938?

That night, just like after all of his other fights, Joe Louis did not gloat. He didn't have to. He had his entire country to do his gloating for him.

Brian Gallagher can be reached at brian.gallagher@atomicsportsmedia.com.