[Right Cal Gal]

Terrell Owens? People dislike Terrell Owens because he's an asshole. I'm sick of this "people hate us and mistreat us because we're black." No, they hate you because you're a complete jerk and deserve an incredible stomping at the hands of the other team.

And puleeeeze! O.J. Simpson. Simpson couldn't have found his way to the 'hood with a map and a flashlight. He projected himself as a victim of a racist police department just long enough to secure an aquittal at the hands of one of the dumbest juries in American history and then tried to run back to white society. Who told him to stuff it. Not because he was black. But because he killed two people.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

How could Johnson possibly be in danger of being "forgotten"? Hasn't anyone ever seen "The Great White Hope" starring James Earl Jones? The movie was made in 1968, and is replayed all the time. Great flick, well made, yet another great performance by Jones. And Ken Burns "discovered" this guy for the libs to cry over? Puh-leeez!

[Celtjew Libertarian]

What made matters worse is that Johnson was, as Burns puts it, "the original gangsta," living a bling-bling lifestyle 90 years before that term was coined. In an era that required black men to be circumspect, he was a brash fellow who didn't mind flaunting his wealth. He lived high, drove fast. And if he was attracted to a white woman and she to him, he saw no reason they should not be together. Indeed, he had a bad habit of marrying them.

He also enjoyed opera, studied history, and had a few patents to his name. Not exactly "gangsta."

[Lee'sGhost]

"You hear echoes of his story in the stories of O.J. Simpson, Terrell Owens and in a hundred stories that have nothing to do with white women and sex and everything to do with the simple freedom to be."

Wow, the guy makes a great case and then goes and ruins it by bringing up something totally unrelated and contradictory. Go figure.

[Lee'sGhost]

Well, well, well. I got to thinking about the story and it hit me -- so where the hell was Johnson when he got arrested? Funny, no mention of it in the article. Did a quick Google and found oodles of stories -- but it took nearly a half hour of poking around before I finally an article that revealed such basic information.

Got your curiosity up? Let me give you a hint. The posted article and most of the ones I googled up did NOT mention the location -- so it was a pretty damn safe bet he wasn't in the South. (Though they had no problem pointing to North Carolina as the location of his death in a car accident -- after having to eat in the back of a segregated diner.) I guess racism is only worth mentioning if it occurred in the South.

Oh, so where was he when he got arrested for violating the Mann Act?

Traveling from Pittsburgh to Chicago.

Where was the trial and his conviction?

Chicago.

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

NOT

[ozzymandus]

Leonard Pitts is an affirmative-action columnist who only got his job by being black. he was even awarded the affirmative-action Pulitzer for being the best black columnist on the liberal plantation. naturally, my local leftie paper runs his column. It's apparent to me that he never heard of Jack Johnson until he saw the TV show. Then he uses this PBS agitprop to attack America and defend OJ. It's completely typical of his writing.

[Hatteras]

"He lived high, drove fast."

Drove fast? What? a 1908 Ferrari Testarossa?

[F.J. Mitchell]

Seems to me that Johnson lived pretty high on the hog, layed a bunch of porkettas and pretty much had his own way in all areas of his life.

Johnson got what he wanted, the porketteas got what they wanted, and they have moved on.

Why the h*ll don't we do the same?

[LibertarianInExile]

As long as we're pardoning dead people, I'd like to see Attila the Hun pardoned for his myriad human rights abuses. After all, Attila was abused as a child. /sarcasm

[Clemenza]

Always admired Jack Johnson. I wonder if Burns will mention the fact that JJ was considered an "uncle Tom" by many blacks for his "white man's pretensions?"

[popdonnelly]

We are probably a nation of historical illiteracy, but Ken Burns is a documentarian of great historical bias.

[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

Johnson sounds like a fascinating man and a good boxer (and I love to hear the story of a good boxer, from Muhammad Ali to Jake LaMotta). Pity I haven't heard too much about him before, but I think I might just check out this documentary to rectify that little oversight. Joe Louis was another man able to pull himself up by his bootstraps and overcome the racial bigotry prominant in his day and age, and boxing as a sport is immensely stronger for it.

(O.J., on the other hand, really IS guilty as Hell. I don't know why the author of this piece feels it necessary to defend a double-murderer when the O.J. Simpson trial is not even related to the topic at hand).

[MindBender26]

>angry whites rioted across the country.

If the author of this article had bothered to read history, or even watch the film, he would have known that Blacks also rioted and assaulted many Whites. There were deaths on both sides.

Give Johnson a meaningless pardon? Sure, why not. Massachusetts Democrats pardoned the obviously guilty Sacco and Vanzetti to ensure the Italian vote in the Kennedy/Kerry home state.

But of course, give all the credit for this PC Puff Party to the Democrats.... and continue to prove through our actions that government wants to buy the support of America's Black people by meaningless gestures, rather than the so-called Black leadership telling their defrauded followers to make their own successes, their own good luck, their own futures.

Any American Black who thinks they are getting a bad deal in America today should spend two weeks in West Africa.

There they will learn just how good they have it here, as opposed to the eked out Third World existence they would have there.

In addition, they would be shocked and disappointed when they learn their "African Brothers" look at them with disdain, seeing them as spoiled brats, lazy losers in life.

[Airborne1986]

"And if he was attracted to a white woman and she to him, he saw no reason they should not be together."

Whatever. I don't begrudge anybody a good time. But, I don't think we need to make the guy out to be Nathan Hale because he got alot of play.

[beckett]

Ken Burns has produced nothing but crap since his work on The Civil War, until he brought us Unforgiveable Blackness. Johnson was a fascinating, flawed character and Burns rendered his story well.

[M. Espinola]

Overdue justice:

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., speaks during a news conference supporting a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion who was convicted in 1913 in a case based on his consensual relationship with a white woman, Wednesday, April 6th, 2005, in Washington. Behind King are Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, left, president of the Joint Association of Boxers, referee Richard Steele, a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, and former boxing champion Iran Barkley, right. A lifesize photo of Johnson is at right. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)