It took no less a man than Donald Trump to bring this strange and somewhat bitter low-hanging fruit to fruition?
For those who like their symbolism served cold, President Donald J. Trump granted former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Johnson a posthumous pardon today.
In an Oval Office ceremony surrounded Deontay Wilder, Lennox Lewis, Sylvester Stallone, and Mauricio Sulaiman, the President said this about Johnson: ?He overcame these difficult circumstances to reach the heights of boxing and the boxing world and inspired generations with his tenacity and independent spirit. I believe that Jack Johnson is a very worthy person to receive a full pardon, and in this case, a posthumous pardon, so I am taking this very righteous step, I believe, to correct a wrong that occurred in our history and to honor a truly legendary boxing champion.?
Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury of transporting a white woman across state lines for ?debauchery or any other immoral purpose? a century ago. Using the little-known and little-used Mann Act (or White Slave Traffic Act) to teach the ?uppity? boxer a lesson, the affair was a blot on the judiciary, a slap in the face of miscegenation, and it hounded Johnson from the ring to Leavenworth all the way to the White House.
The idea of pardoning Jack Johnson has been floated for many years, yet never lost currency. Perhaps because Johnson?s sentence was more egregious than his offense, perhaps because Johnson was no longer around to smile ?that golden smile? in the face of his inferiors, it took no less a man than Donald Trump to bring this strange and somewhat bitter low-hanging fruit to fruition.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is fighting brain cancer and has forbidden Trump to attend his funeral, has been calling for a pardon for Jack Johnson since 2004.
?Johnson?s imprisonment forced him into the shadows of bigotry and prejudice,? McCain said in a statement in January 2017, ?and continues to stand as a shameful stain on our nation?s history.?
Ken Burns, whose magisterial ?Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson? resurrected Johnson for a new generation in 2004, applauded McCain for his inside game.
?I?m just so happy that Senator John McCain, who has led our efforts to achieve a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, has lived to witness this moment,? he said in a statement. ?The pardon announced today helps correct an injustice experienced by Jack Johnson. But it also reminds us of a racist past and how even today racist remarks and coded words are used to imperil African Americans, especially Black men, and to advance an Un-American agenda.?
