Jack Johnson rose to boxing supremacy during this country's Jim Crow era. He was so unbeatable that the term "great white hope" was coined as whites sought a white boxer who could beat him. Failing miserably in that endeavor they used the only means they could to unseat him as Champ. He was arrested and convicted by an all-white jury under a Jim Crow-era law, the Mann Act, of illegally taking a woman across the state lines for “immoral purposes.” Johnson testified that he and the woman were merely friends. Still, he was thrown in jail for a year. His legacy has been tarnished long enough. Mr. President we emplore you to posthumously pardon one of the greatest heavyweight champions of the world, the incomparable Jack Johnson.
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