jack-in-the-box a box from which a little figure on a spring jumps up when the lid is lifted, used as a toy. Here, the term is used to set the scene in Donatelli's Gym when Alfred first arrives.
Joe Louis African American boxer Joseph Louis Barrow (1914–81), world heavyweight boxing champion (1937–49). Louis was revered by blacks for his leadership, athletic prowess, and demeanor.
Lenox Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
marquee a rooflike structure or awning projecting over an entrance, as to a theater; here, the marquee at Madison Square Garden, advertising the fights.
medicine balls large, heavy, leather-covered balls, tossed from one person to another for physical exercise.
nationalist rally Here, the term suggests the black nationalist movements of the 1960s, specifically the Nation of Islam, led by Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), founded by Muhammad's former protégé, Malcolm X (1925–65).
Old Uncle Alfred Major contemptuously implies that Alfred is an "Uncle Tom" [Informal], a black whose behavior toward whites is regarded as fawning or servile. The term refers to the main character, an elderly black slave, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).
Peace Corps an agency of the United States, established in 1961 to provide volunteers skilled in teaching, construction, etc., to assist people of underdeveloped areas abroad; here, the agency Alfred's cousin Jeff may join after graduating from college.
polio short for "poliomyelitis," an accute infectious disease, especially of children, caused by a viral inflammation of the gray matter of the spinal cord; it is accompanied by paralysis of various muscle groups that sometimes atrophy, often with resulting permanent deformities; here, the disease that crippled Henry Johnson.
probation the suspension of sentence of a person convicted but not imprisoned, on condition of continued good behavior and regular reporting to a probation officer; here, James' punishment for attempting to rob Epstein's grocery store.
Queens the largest borough of New York City, on western Long Island, east of Brooklyn; the home of Alfred's Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Wilson.
racketeers people who obtain money illegally, as by bootlegging, fraud, or, especially, extortion. Here, Lou Epstein uses the term in reference to the bad people he sees affiliated with boxing.
shadowboxing sparring with an imaginary opponent, especially in training as a boxer; here, the exercise Donatelli has Alfred do to train, the exercise Alfred tires of and sees no purpose in.
