![]() In 1932, at the age of 17, he turned professional under the guidance of well-known Liverpool boxing promoter Johnny Best Senior (father of the celebrated ‘fifth’ Beatle, Pete Best.) Unfortunately, for him his boxing career was blighted by the disgraceful ‘Colour Bar,’ that prohibited any none white fighter from challenging for a British Boxing title, from 1911 to 1947. To his credit, by age 13 his claim to fame included the achievement of being the first black Liverpool fighter to win a British Title by winning the schoolboy championship of Great Britain in 1929 and again in 1930. By aged 14 he had contested over 100 fights. Peter Banasko, “some said he was the best of the best,” was born in Liverpool in 1915 to his father, Isaac Immanuel Banasko from the Gold Coast, Ghana and his mother Lillian Banasko, nee Doyle, from Liverpool. He fought with equal passion and commitment in his trail blazing efforts to secure fairer and better conditions for both his fellow boxers and those who followed in his foot steps. Boxing was a grim and soul destroying business. During this period, he fought at the Skating Rink Dale Street, as well as the Adelphi Theatre and the Old Pudsey Street Stadium, in Liverpool. He began his career in 1905 and retired in 1916. Other Liverpool black boxers from the early twentieth century include William Lawson (Young Snowball), the hard-hitting Jamaican bantam and the only Merseyside based boxer to defeat the late great Ike Bradley at Birkenhead Drill Hall. Little is known of Harry Brown, beyond the fact that his professional career lasted from 1896 till 1912. In 1896 a well-known Liverpool boxer Harry Brown was attracting the attention of the boxing world demonstrating his sporting proficiency in the boxing ring, by being crowned coloured champion of the North West of England in the lightweight division. This portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. In later life, he worked as a trainer and promoter and ran a tavern in Liverpool. Winning his first bout in 1833, he retired undefeated in 1840. ![]() Wharton’s early life remains uncertain he described himself as a Moroccan who arrived in England in 1820 but his place of birth was recorded as London in the 1851 census. ![]() He was popularly known as the ‘Young Molineaux’ after the famous black American boxer of the preceding generation, Tom Molineaux. James ‘Jem’ Wharton was one of the most successful boxers in Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century. ![]()
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