ALONG with making history 100 years ago as the first black heavyweight champ, Jack Johnson made enemies as the nation’s first black pop-culture icon.
At a time when blacks made the newspapers only as perpetrators of crime — or as victims of vicious lynchings — Johnson was photographed more than most white men.
Often he was photographed with white women, the forbidden fruit of American society.
But rather than accept him as an equal, or even as a superior boxer, US government officials prosecuted and convicted Johnson of violating the Mann Act, which outlawed transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.
Johnson’s real crime was being a man. He would not fall in the ring. So the government found a law to beat him outside of it.
Two Republican lawmakers are trying to right that wrong by introducing a resolution urging President Obama to pardon Johnson.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said this fight is worth going the distance.
“I had admired Jack Johnson’s prowess in the ring,” said McCain, who introduced the resolution with Rep. Peter King (R-LI). “And the more I found out about him, the more I thought a grave injustice was done.”
The White House and the Justice Department had no comment about the pardon effort.
Posthumous presidential pardons are rare, but Obama — the first black president, and America’s most recent pop culture icon — would be wise to answer the bell.
After Johnson won the title, newspaper editorials warned the boxer and the black community not to get too comfortable.
Obama, meanwhile, has already found himself on the ropes. Rush Limbaugh wants him to fail, and congressional Republicans are trying to back him into a corner.
He can’t even fill out a March Madness bracket without getting attacked.
Certainly, Obama won his match in a much more tolerant society. Even so, the president needs to keep his hands up. The search is already under way for another Great White Hope.