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