WASHINGTON D.C. - While performing research for his documentary on Jack Johnson, filmmaker Ken Burns came to the conclusion that racism, and not justice, was the cause of the incarceration of the world's first black heavyweight boxing champion nearly a century ago.
Burns proceeded to seek a presidential pardon and joined by civil rights leaders, senators John McCain and Orrin Hatch and other boxers announced the filing of legal papers with the Justice Department.
The petition argues that Johnson's 1913 conviction under the Mann Act, a law passed three years earlier that banned the interstate transport of women for immoral purposes, unfairly punished him for a consensual relationship with a white woman.
"A gross and grave injustice was done to Jack Johnson where a law was perverted to send this decent American to jail," said McCain. "Pardoning Jack Johnson will serve as a historic testament of America's resolve to live up to its noble ideals of justice and equality."
Hatch said, "This man was flamboyant. But there was a reason for the flamboyancy. He was taking on the world and fighting to give African-Americans a chance."
Johnson died in an automobile accident in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 10, 1946. He was 68. If granted, the pardon would be only the second awarded posthumously. The first was President Clinton's 1999 pardon of Henry O. Flipper, a former slave who became the first black Army officer.
Johnson became the first black champion when he stopped Tommy Burns in Australia in 1908.
In 1910 former champion Jim Jeffries, spurred on by fans who wanted a white champion, came out of retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries was billed as "The Great White Hope." The two fighters squared off in Reno, Nevada, and Johnson won the bout by knocking out Jeffries in the 15th round.
"I could never have whipped Johnson at my best," Jeffries said. "I couldn't have hit him. No, I couldn't have reached him in 1,000 years."
In a time where the Jim Crow laws and segregation ruled, Johnson's victory was despised by White America, but what actually triggered race riots across the United States was Johnson's alleged fondness for white women.
Johnson was said to be proud of his conquests among white women and as a result prosecutors moved against him in 1912 by arresting Johnson on the charge of abducting his white fiance, Lucille Cameron.
Johnson was indicted, but the government lost Cameron as a witness when she married Johnson. Under the law, a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband.
With the pressure of an indictment, the prosecution found another witness, Belle Schreiber, another white women and a former mistress of Johnson. Her testimony led to Johnson’s conviction, and he served a 10-month sentence.
Burn's petition contends the conviction was legally unfounded and sadly reveals the extreme prejudice at the time.
Other supporters who joined the proceedings were Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr., boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Vernon Forrest and actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Burns’ documentary on Johnson, titled "Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," will air on the Public Broadcasting Service channel in January.
