Q: I recently read something about a boxing champion from Georgia in the 1920s. His name was Flowers. I had never heard about him before. Can you tell me more?
A: A historical marker where Theodore Flowers' Atlanta home once stood provides a brief look into the life of the first black middleweight champion of the world.
He was born in the south Georgia town of Camilla and eventually settled in Atlanta in 1920.
That’s when Flowers, who was called “Tiger” and picked up the nickname the “Georgia Deacon,” became serious about boxing. He lived on what was then Simpson Road, was a member of the Butler Street CME Church and was popular throughout the city.
Flowers received a shot at the middleweight championship in February 1926.
He defeated Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden and defended the title against Greb later that year before losing a controversial decision to Mickey Walker.
Flowers died a year later while having eye surgery, sending Atlanta into mourning, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
He is buried in Lincoln Cemetery and Atlanta Fire Station No. 16 was built where Flowers’ home once stood.
More (mis-)pronunciations
I’ve received several more emails from readers who have issues with how they hear certain cities and counties pronounced. That included someone taking offense about how DeKalb sometimes is mangled. “When you hear someone on the radio calling it Dee-KaLb, with the ‘L,’ you know they are not local.”
How do you say DeKalb?
“My particular gripe is the ongoing mispronunciation of Roswell. I am a fifth-generation Atlanta native and my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all lived at one time or another, in or near Roswell. They always pronounced it with the accent on the first syllable — ROS-well — with the ‘well’ part almost sounding like the word “wool. I’ll call this version 1.0. The version that I hear most often these days has the ‘well’ part pronounced, well, like ‘well.’ I’ll call this version 1.1. I notice that the transplants tend to use version 1.1, while natives and older residents use 1.0. It’s ROS-wool, not Ros-WELL.”
—William Smith
“While you’re at it, let’s get Roswell right. Folks who are from here, pronounce it ROZ-wul, not Roz-WELL. For that matter, it just screams ‘not from around here’ when they say Man-SELL instead of MAN-sull.”
—Sherron Lawson
“I was born in East Atlanta and I always said Daluth, and I was corrected one day by a person from there and they said it was Duluth, like Doo-luth.”
—Phil Pilgrim
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