Sugar Ray Robinson Sugar Ray Robinson Sugar Ray Robinson (born Walker Smith Jr.; May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. Robinson's performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time and in 2002, Robinson was ranked number one on "The Ring" magazine's list of "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years". Robinson was 85–0 as
Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson Smith, a furniture mover and Baptist minister. The Smith children lived a comfortable existence in their separate Black world. Their parents made their earnings off of black patronage rather than from the support of whites, which showed Ruby from a young age the power and independence that blacks could have. They had strong adult support, and they had their own churches, schools, and social activities. No matter how insulated they were, however, the reality of American racism and segregation intruded from time to time. Smith-Robinson recalled her feelings about segregation in those early years saying, "I was conscious of my