BLACK & WHITE
Thomas “LaPuppet” Carroll, a student of African-American karate pioneer George Cofield and a noted tournament fighter on the East Coast, initially gained national prominence in 1968 when he became the first Black martial artist to make the cover of Black Belt (August issue).
“It was a very big deal to us at the time,” said Chaka Zulu, a fellow New York martial artist and friend of LaPuppet’s. “The only time you ever saw an African-American in Black Belt back then, he was being beaten up by a white guy. The only position we could have in the martial arts world was as an uke.”
Ron Van Clief, who would appear on the cover of Black Belt in August 1999, agreed that African-American representation in the magazine, then the only significant media outlet covering martial arts in the United States, was often lacking.
“I think I was only the third Black they ever put on the cover, and that’s terrible,” he said. (Van Clief was actually the seventh Black person to play a featured role on the cover, but his point is well taken.)
Even more of a sore point for Van Clief and other African-American tournament veterans of the 1960s was how unfair they perceived the judging to
Victor Moore, a leading Black fighter in the 1960s, recalled a match he had with Chuck Norris at Ed Parker’s Long Beach International Karate Championships in California, where he said he knocked down Norris with a body punch and all four corner judges called a point. But the center referee, isshin-ryu pioneer Steve Armstrong, signaled for them to go to another room and discuss it, then decided the point wouldn’t count and the match should continue.
“Norris threw a little kick and hit my arm, and
