A Senate resolution was passed Tuesday to encourage President Obama to posthumously pardon boxing legend Jack Johnson, who was convicted 100 years ago in a racially-motivated travesty of justice. Says Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), “We need to erase this act of racism which sent an American citizen to prison on a trumped-up charge.” The resolution says that the boxer should receive a posthumous pardon “for the racially motivated conviction in 1913 that diminished the athletic, cultural, and historic significance of Jack Johnson and unduly tarnished his reputation."
Right.
On October 18, 1912, Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion, was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act against "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes." Cameron, a white woman soon to become Johnson's second wife, refused to cooperate and the case fell apart. Less than a month later, Johnson was arrested again on similar charges. This time, the woman, an alleged prostitute named Belle Schreiber, with whom he had been previously involved, testified against him. Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury in June 1913, despite the fact that the incidents used to convict him took place prior to passage of the Mann Act. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Johnson fled the country and lived abroad for several years, but returned in 1920 to serve 10 months in prison.
President Obama declined to pardon Johnson in 2009 when a similar resolution was passed on the grounds his administration does not grant posthumous pardons. The Department of Justice agrees, saying that its limited resources "are best dedicated to requests submitted by living persons who can truly benefit from a grant of clemency."
I find myself in agreement with President Obama and the Department of Justice. Yes, Johnson was railroaded. Yes, he was punished for having the audacity to be a black man who could beat white men in the boxing ring and consort with white women. Yes, he was reviled by jealous racists for openly living the life of a wealthy, attractive celebrity. Yes, his arrest, trial and conviction had everything to do with color and nothing to do with justice.
But posthumous pardons are a form of political tomfoolery. Call me cynical, but I can’t help but suspect the motivation here is more political than moral. Perhaps McCain and collaborator Rep. Peter King (R-New York) are sincere, but my suspicion is they simply hope African-American voters can be manipulated into feeling better disposed toward Republicans. The truth is, hearts and minds cannot be bought with symbolic gestures, they can only be won with genuine empathy and respect. Good luck trying to find that from the party that still makes watermelon jokes about the President of the United States.
The opportunity for this pardon expired when Johnson died in 1946. Granting him a pardon now will only allow a few who aren't entitled to feel better about themselves. It does nothing for the man himself or his memory. It certainly does nothing to, in the words of the resolution, "expunge a racially motivated abuse of the prosecutorial authority of the federal government from the annals of criminal justice in the United States." Rational minds already know the man was innocent. You can't change history.
Let the story of Jack Johnson teach us and future generations the terrible risk one took in being black and powerful in America in 1913. Our president knows all too well what comes with being black and powerful in America in 2013. If he chooses not to grant this pardon, I understand and agree.