The First Black President Must Pardon the First Black Champion

Much to the displeasure of Arizona Senator John McCain and Long Island GOP Representative Pete King, the Justice Department announced Thursday that they will not grant the first black heavyweight boxing champion a posthumous pardon for his racially motivated 1913 conviction of the Mann Act.

Ronald L. Rodgers is the Justice Department’s pardon attorney and he informed King that the request to provide Jack Johnson amnesty was been denied because the department generally offers pardons only to individuals “who can truly benefit” from them.

Despite the department’s rejection, Rodgers wrote that President Obama still possesses the authority to pardon persons he deems deserving of them, “guided when he sees fit by the advice of the pardon attorney.”

Last April, the two lawmakers initially sought to have Johnson excused of his guilty sentence after they respectively watched Ken Burns’ documentary titled Unforgivable Blackness on the pugilistic legend.

King said that he and McCain will continue to press President Obama to issue the pardon.

“What they’re doing here is bucking it back to President Obama,” King said. “So I would respectfully urge him to grant the pardon. This is the president’s call.”

Burns himself has long been outspoken about his beliefs that Johnson needs to be pardoned for the unjust conviction he received nearly a century ago.

“For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and notorious African-American on earth,” said Burns of the prizefighter who completed his career with 89 wins and a measly two losses and was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954.

“This was a man who Muhammad Ali emulated. But Muhammad Ali did his fighting in a decade dedicated to civil rights. Jack Johnson did it in a decade in which more African Americans were lynched than at any other time.”

Jack Johnson was an impenetrable defensive wizard in the ring who scholar Molefi Kete Asante nominated as one of the 100 Greatest African Americans in history.

The third child and first son of former slaves, the “Galveston Giant” carelessly dismissed conventions regarding the social and economic statuses of blacks in American society of his time.

A bigoted Klansman’s most-mortifying nightmare, Johnson banged white women, drove expensive cars and donned flamboyant clothing that would have made a modern pimp blush.

Despite obviously being the most dominant boxer in the world during his era, the Texas native was prevented from fighting for the world heavyweight championship.

In those times of rampant bigotry, the title was so respected and coveted that whites prohibited blacks from competing for the crown.

Realizing how yellow many whites were, Johnson stalked Canadian champion Tommy Burns around the globe and he incessantly and maliciously mocked the Canuck whenever he spoke to the press.

Johnson’s calculated taunts eventually worked and Burns agreed to scrap the “subhuman ape.”

On December 26, 1908, in front of over 20,000 spectators in Sydney, Australia, Johnson punished Burns for 14 rounds before the fuzz charged the ring and halted the bloody massacre.

Subsequently, the referee called the fight and Johnson was awarded the heavyweight title via TKO.

In the aftermath of Johnson’s violent triumph, racial animosity reached a feverish pitch, and socialist Jack London spearheaded the search for a “Great White Hope” who could defeat the black titlist and return the belt to the “superior” Caucasian race.

In 1910, formerly undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries came out of retirement and, despite intentionally sidestepping Johnson when he was still active, said, “I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro.”

As loud chants of “kill the nigger” reverberated through the entirely honky crowd, Johnson pulverized Jeffries like he was the reincarnation of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

When it became readily evident that Jeffries was overmatched, his flunkies waived the “white flag” and sacrificed their fighter from being beaten any further.

The outcome of the “Fight of the Century,” which earned Johnson $225,000, triggered race riots across the United States.

Coming to the apparent realization that no man, not black, white, or maroon, could take Johnson in a fair donnybrook, racist authority figures fingered Johnson for being in alleged violation of the Mann Act by “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.”

After going on the lam for a year in Mexico to avoid an unfair prosecution, Johnson returned to the U.S. and surrendered to federal agents to face the bogus, race-fueled charge.

Johnson, an Andy Dufresne-like character who modified a wrench and patented the improvements he made while incarcerated, was hauled off to the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas to serve his undeserved one-year sentence behind bars.

Upon being released from the pen, Johnson attempted to jumpstart his suspended boxing career.

Unfortunately, Johnson had lost some of his famed speed and timing when he was incarcerated in the Sunflower State and he was unable to recapture the brilliance that made him a boxing icon.

Jack Johnson was a tremendous warrior who faced unimaginable obstacles to become one of the supreme champions in boxing history.

America as a nation will indeed “truly benefit” if President Obama justifiably grants Jack Johnson with a posthumous pardon.