House passes Jack Johnson pardon resolution
By Glenn ThrushPolitico
July 30, 2009
The odd couple team of Rep. Pete King (R-NY) and Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) have sold the House on their resolution calling for a pardon of the great and unfairly maligned African-American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who was forced to emigrate to Europe for marrying a white woman.
The resolution briefly stalled when Congressional Black Caucus members expressed their pique at King, a boxing fan who occasionally laces on the gloves, for declaring Michael Jackson a child molester and all-around-perv.
But Jackson, an MJ admirer who actually enjoys a pretty decent relationship with the Long Island conservative, unclogged the bill, which passed unanimously on Wednesday.
It calls for President Obama to pardon Johnson for his 1913 conviction of violating the infamous Mann Act, which has been amended but not overturned.
The Senate passed a similar measure earlier this year; It's not clear if Obama plans to go along with the pardon.
In 2004, filmmaker Ken Burns helped form the Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson as he was working on "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson."
King, who has been pushing for the resolution, urged the first African-American president to clear the name of the first black heavyweight champ: "I urge the president to do the right thing and take the final step and grant his pardon."