If Trump pardons Jack Johnson it won't be for his contribution to black America

15 May 2018 09:00
The great heavyweight champion stood up to white America. But the president’s interest in the case isn’t due to civil rightsA few weeks ago, Sylvester Stallone called Donald Trump with a suggestion: why not grant a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion? Given the left-field nature of the idea, there’s a good chance the president may actually go through with it. Johnson reigned from 1908-1915, though in the opinion of many boxing experts, he was the best heavyweight in the world for a much longer period. And as documentarian Ken Burns says in his 2004 film, Unforgivable Blackness: “For more than 13 years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African American on Earth.” Related: Eamonn Magee: ‘My father convinced the IRA to give me one bullet’ Related: Trump 'considering full pardon' of Jack Johnson – thanks to Sylvester Stallone Continue readingread full article

Source: TheGuardian