Does anyone know what Floyd Patterson's heritage was?

[La_Vibora]

I have just always wondered what his background was exactly, to me he looks like he might have had some Italian heritage perhaps from one of his parents or a grandparent or something. Does anyone know?

[Forza]

Funny I've always thought the same thing. That or maybe some german.

[La_Vibora]

Honestly, looking at the pic in your avatar and the pic I posted, he could pass as Marciano's half black brother imo. LOL

[Dynamite76]

He's black man, originally from North Carolina.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Stokely sez he African American.

Floyd never said what he thought, but I seem to recall him being Catholic. I could be wrong though, but conversions are usually done when marrying a Catholic girl, so it's possible.

[The Old LefHook]

Floyd was a darker European variety.

[billeau2]

Honestly, looking at the pic in your avatar and the pic I posted, he could pass as Marciano's half black brother imo. LOL

A lot of Blacks came up from the South to the North. Patterson's family settled in Brooklyn. It is entirely possible that Patterson has some white in his family tree, but he was an African American.

The South at the time Patterson was growing up was rural and there is a tremendous amount of poverty in rural areas. You may have land even, or your family might have been sharecroppers (Liston's family was), and you don't have two nickels to rub together.

Many Black families came to the north in cities where there were jobs, and services.

[smeck]

He's black man, originally from North Carolina.

True enough. Ali had a lighter complexion than Floyd. There's really not much in Floyd's features to suggest a lot of white ancestors.

W.K. Stratton's book on Floyd makes no mention of where his parents, Thomas and Annabelle were from. The book just notes that they were in North Carolina when Floyd was born, and that they soon moved up to Brooklyn, where Floyd demonstrated a lot of troubled behavior. He was awkward, shy, and hated himself for his lack of social skills and the shabby clothes that others made fun of. He once drew an X over a photo of himself and told his mother "I don't like that boy."

He suffered from nightmares and even was prone to sleepwalking. He could hardly read, played hooky from school, and was more often in "the streets, a strange, illiterate kid who would stick his chin on his chest and look at the ground when anybody tried to talk to him."
He'd hide in the subways, sometimes in the dark of a subway crew's tool room. He turned to crime, often for somewhat noble reasons, like the time he broke into a dress shop at two in the morning to bring back some nice clothing for his mother.

Well...it's a fascinating read, but no, it doesn't give any details on whether Thomas or Annabelle Patterson had a white grandmother or grandfather in the mix. Floyd's an interesting looking guy, but I suppose you could say the same thing about Johnny Mathis, or in reverse, whites who seemed like they could be black, like Louis Prima or Johnny Cash's first wife.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Well, the boy named Sue eventually became known as The Man in Black decades before Men in Black.

Floyd wore black glasses and black wig to sneak back into the public after his Liston losses.

[The Old LefHook]

White men hardly ever have wrinkled napes. Put two and two together. Get it? Got it. Good.