Lawmakers fight to get first black heavyweight champ off ropes with pardon for false conviction

The Dallas Morning News ^ | 2009-03-30 | Gromer Jeffers Jr.

[rabscuttle385]

Jack Johnson, the first African-American to become world heavyweight boxing champion, overcame racism and poverty to slug his way to the top.

Efforts to clear his name of a bogus conviction for transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes, however, have not been as successful.

Today is the 131st anniversary of Johnson's birth in Galveston, and it comes as renewed efforts are under way in Congress to get a presidential pardon for the boxer who died 68 years ago.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., plan to introduce resolutions before Congress on Wednesday calling on President Barack Obama to pardon Johnson.

[rabscuttle385]

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[rabscuttle385]

Two years earlier, he had been forced to flee the country after being falsely convicted of violating the federal Mann Act, an effort to curb the transporting of white women across state lines for prostitution.

What's next? A pardon for Ted "The Swimmer" Kennedy?

[sheik yerbouty]

Johnny Taliban will be the next one..

[D-fendr]

I think I’m for the basic premise of this one. Jack was railroaded.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Good to see our Republicans have their priorities in order. How did we ever manage to lose Congress with these guys in charge ?

[Semper Mark]

McCain’s thoughts...

Maybe Obama will like me if I fight to get a pardon for some dead black guy.

Also, I couldn’t help but notice that it said in the article
that Johnson spent his money as fast as he could make it,
and in almost the same breath it said that he didn’t play into racial stereotypes though. hmmm

[TheThinker]

Hell, why not but why now? Somebody’s pandering, wonder who? Why its John McCain! Shouldn’t he be buying Meghan another bucket of ice cream and a 12 pack of beer?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Well, on this one, Jack needs to be exonerated...he was railroaded simply because he was such a good fighter and was resented for it.

[yarddog]

Wasn’t Jack Johnson an open Communist and didn’t he do the crime? Why should he be anything but despised as the low life Commie he was?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I've never heard anything about Johnson being a Communist and really doubt it considering his background and educational level.

He did have his personal problems though, and was a wife-beater. Still, the Mann Act violation was trumped up since he liked white women and had married a white prostitute, triggering all kinds of lurid accusations against him.

Jack Johnson

[Night Hides Not]

Good to see our Republicans have their priorities in order. How did we ever manage to lose Congress with these guys in charge ?

We need to include Orrin Hatch in this august group, with all the time he's spending on the BCS.

[Sherman Logan]

Wasn’t Jack Johnson an open Communist and didn’t he do the crime? Why should he be anything but despised as the low life Commie he was?

It has never been illegal in this country to be a Communist.

I may be mistaken, but I believe the woman he was convicted of transporting across state lines for immoral purposes was his (white) wife. If correct, this was pretty obviously a miscarriage of justice.

[Sherman Logan]

The Supreme Court ruled that the Mann Act applied to consensual sexual relationships.

Johnson quite certainly violated it.

The Mann Act can be considered a stupid law, if you like, and it has been far too often used to harass unpopular people, and has never been enforced consistently, but it is quite legal and constitutional.

It’s still in effect, BTW. The investigation that brought Spitzer down was for violation of the Mann Act.

[Jack Hammer]

Yep.

[Sherman Logan]

I was mistaken. The first woman he was accused of transporting was a white prostitute. He married her after the charges were filed, and so she was unable to testify against him.

The cops hunted around and found another prostitute to use as grounds for the charge.

Toting a prostitute across state lines is pretty obviously an actual violation of the Act.

[yarddog]

At the time it was illegal to marry outside ones race. That was the law. He was also accused of having sex with large numbers of underage girls. He always wanted White girls which was illegal, not just for their ages.

He really did transport them for immoral purposes. They were strict about that then and I think they still should be.

[Sherman Logan]

At the time it was illegal to marry outside ones race.

Only in some states.

[yarddog]

Yes that is correct.