Joseph Louis Barrow was a famous American boxer who is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937-1949. He was also regarded as a National hero, and was a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment during world war II because of his historic 1938 rematch and victory over German Boxer Max Schmelling.

Joe was the seventh of eight children, born to Munroe Barrow and Lillie (Reese) Barrow on May 13th, 1914, in rural Chambers County, Alabama. Munroe and Lillie were sharecroppers and children of former slaves.

When Joe was only a few years old, his father suffered a nervous breakdown from the stress of trying to provide for his family by sharecropping (a widely recognized form of re-routed slavery). Munroe was committed to “Mt. Vernon Hospital for the Colored Insane” (Searcy Hospital).

In his 1947 biography, Joe wrote that his father died around the year 1920. However, in 1936, a visitor to Mt. Vernon Hospital took several pictures of Munroe Barrow next to his hospital bed holding a photo of his adult son. The back of the photo Munroe is holding reads “to Munroe Barrow from Joe Louis Barrow”. Joe would have been 23 years old at the time, 11 years before writing about his father’s supposed early death.

This mystery of Munroe Barrow’s erasure leaves many questions unanswered. Why did the hospital staff lie about Munroe’s death to Joe and his family? Did they do this with other patients and families as well? Did Joe really believe his father was dead? If so, then who sent the portrait of Joe to his father and signed it “from Joe Louis Barrow”? Was Munroe of sound mind enough to know that he was holding a photo of his son? If so, did he ever find out that his Son was famous?