"When whites ran everything, Jack Johnson took orders from no one. When black Americans were expected to defer to whites, Jack Johnson battered them to the ground." – Ken Burns, "Unforgivable Blackness"
It was over a century after the death of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that a nameless worker at the National Archives found his amnesty oath, written and signed and forgotten by history amongst the plethora of records sitting in the State Department.
The discovery led President Gerald R. Ford to pardon the traitor general, a man who had taken up arms against his country with the sole intent of destroying it, and the corpse was given a country again.
How long does it take, then, to pardon a man who committed no crime other than that mighty offense of being born black in the wrong era? In that case, it appears the government is far less forgiving.
Jack Johnson was one of six children born to former slave parents in Galveston, Texas, in 1878. After a half-dozen years of schooling, he dropped out to work on the docks, and eventually, like so many whose life-paths tend to end in cul-de-sacs, he turned to boxing as a way out.
And what a boxer he was.
Bald-headed and well-muscled, he’d grown to a solid 6-foot-1-inch in height, and even though he weighed somewhere between 190 – 220 pounds, he could move and hit like no one before him. His speed and power were unprecedented, his techniques unrivaled.
But no black man had ever held the heavyweight title before, mostly because being the champ back then meant that you were somewhere between a king and God himself. Plainly put, it was a white man’s title, and nobody was particularly eager for that to change.
So, when the "Galveston Giant" knocked out Canadian champion Tommy Burns on the day after Christmas in 1908, it was much more than just another KO in the squared circle — it was an uplifting moment for every African-American from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast.
"No event in 40 years has given more satisfaction to the colored people of this country than has the signal victory of Jack Johnson," said the Richmond Planet.
The following years were tumultuous, though; it was hard enough for white America to have a black champ, but having one like Johnson, who dressed sharp, flaunted his money, kept company with prostitutes, and — worst of all — married white women, was absolutely intolerable. One after another, white challengers were lined up to put Johnson back in his place, and one by one, he defeated them.
Even the legendary Jim Jeffries — the hardened former champ who had retired undefeated and once drank a case of whiskey in two days to cure himself of pneumonia — was pulled out of retirement and made into the establishment’s newest "Great White Hope."
Johnson, of course, whipped him, and on July 4, 1910, beat the 35-year-old Jeffries from post to post until his corner threw in the towel in the 14th round. That night, 20 were lynched during the race riots that burned across the nation as angry whites reacted to African-American celebrations of the victory.
Once it became clear that Johnson would not be beaten on the canvas, the government went a different route — make him fight in the court room instead. And so in 1913, at the height of his career, he was tried for violating the Mann Act, a law that prohibited the interstate transportation of females for "immoral purposes."
Although it was originally intended to prevent prostitution, the wording was loose and ambiguous and could make a crime out of any number of situations — including one where a universally-despised black heavyweight traveled over state lines with the white prostitute he was involved with.
Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury, but skipped bail and went on the run instead. After seven years in Europe, South America, and Mexico, he finally returned to the U.S. in 1920 to serve his jail time. Released in 1921, he spent much of the rest of his life as the stereotypical aging champ — broke and fighting in show after show (to his body’s chagrin) just to earn money for food and beer. He died in a car wreck on June 10, 1946, after racing away in anger from a North Carolina diner that refused to serve him.
His influence, however, would linger, and had profound affect on generations of black boxers afterwards (including one who, 20 years later, would also refuse to be subservient when the white man wanted him to.)
In the years since Johnson’s death, there have been a number of calls to grant the fighter the posthumous pardon he so dearly deserves, but all have died either in Congress or, more recently, on the stoop of President Obama’s White House, which quietly ignored a 2011 congressional resolution urging exoneration.
One more push is being made by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and John McCain (R-AZ), however, and another boxing legend — "Iron" Mike Tyson himself — has joined the fight by starting a petition (which can be found at change.org) urging amnesty for the man who "paved the way for black boxers like me."
Four thousand and 90 have signed already. More should.
It is time, America. Not to "forgive" Johnson — after all, he committed no crime, and we should not presuppose that we can forgive an innocent man.
No, it’s time to admit to the crimes of our own racist past, and do our best to make amends by pardoning the man whose only misdeed was being born black in a time when America, quite frankly, hated them. Every day he remains a convict is another that the stain of injustice lies, dried and bloody, upon our hands.
When we finally pardon Johnson, it will be us we’re absolving. And one can only hope that the great champion can find it in his heart forgive us…wherever he may be.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/community/history/more_history_news/203528701_Permanently_unforgiven__time_to_pardon_Jack_Johnson.html?page=all
