Senate Calls for Presidential Pardon for Boxer Jack Johnson

A bipartisan resolution calling on President Obama to issue a pardon to boxer Jack Johnson passed the U.S. Senate on July 16th. The resolution was sponsored by Senators Harry Reid (D-Nevada), a former amateur boxer, and John McCain (R-Arizona).

In the era of Jim Crow discrimination, Johnson became the first black man to win the World Heavyweight Championship, beating Australian Tommy Burns on December 26th, 1908 in Sydney. Until that time, blacks were prohibited from competing for the coveted heavyweight title, although they were allowed to compete for titles in lower weight classes.

Johnson’s victory shocked many whites who were outraged that a black man had won the championship and threw the conventional wisdom of black athletic inferiority out the window. But they were more outraged by Johnson’s flamboyant celebrity lifestyle, which included dating and marrying white women (he was married three times in his life, to three white women). He was arrested in 1912 for violating the Mann Act, which prohibited transporting anyone across state lines for prostitution and other “immoral” purposes. Johnson was convicted and served a year in federal prison in 1920. The charges are widely believed to have been racially motivated.

Johnson, who was heavyweight champion until 1915, died in an automobile accident in North Carolina in 1946 at age 68. He was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954.