US could pardon Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson with wife Irene.

The Guardian:

• Jack Johnson jailed on trumped-up racial charge
• 100 years on, Barack Obama called on to issue pardon

Almost 100 years exactly before Barack Obama became the first black president of the US, Jack Johnson struck another blow, literally, for African-American equality. On Boxing Day, fittingly, in 1908 he became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world - a title previously reserved for white men.

Now Obama is being asked to issue a posthumous pardon for Johnson, who was floored not by a rival's punch within the ring but by the force of racially prejudiced justice. A resolution has been introduced to Congress calling for a presidential pardon for Johnson's 1913 conviction on trumped-up racial grounds.

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