The Eighth Round

The Eighth Round by Zeke Wilson (II) is a non-fiction literary work that documents a precedent-setting court battle about one form of racism that had previously not been defined legally; that of same-race discrimination, wherein the perpetrator and the object of the discrimination are of the same racial group.

It is of interest to note that this, the first case in the US to reach a Federal court jury to challenge the concept of same-race discrimination, did not occur until September 11, 2000, when a case was brought by race-black licensed boxing promoter Zeke Wilson against a state sports commission headed by a race-black chairman for damage reparations and punitive redress after his right to conduct professional boxing events was violated.

In this case, race-white Boxing Commissioner William Pender performed direct discriminatory acts, while the race-black Commission Chairman Wilbert McClure failed to provide the promoter sufficient protection under his authority and cooperated in the unjust cancellation of a series of boxing events, causing financial harm to the promoter. A unanimous jury verdict found that the race-black Chairman was guilty of racial discrimination along with race-white Commissioner William Pender and both defendants were assessed punitive damages in addition to the compensatory damages awarded by the jury.