The desendents of Jack Johnson the first Black heavyweight champ are asking President Obama for a pardon. Here is the You Tube feed: http://bit.ly/10tPj7E
Great thread and vid ST. He went to jail for loving WW. So sickening. He is in fact a pioneer, if not a hero. They say the most honorable thing a man has to pass onto his kids is his family name - it's why it's so important a man keeps it upstanding. He was denied that and we see it still affects his family. I hope their plea is granted.
There was a PBS show on Jack Johnson called Unforgiveable Blackness. Samuel L. Jackson did his voice. It was very good. I hope that he does get the pardon.
There was another documentary called Jack Johnson with Miles Davis doing the music. I will put that link as well.
He was a victim of intense racism as the 1910s and 1920s are considered the nadir of black history. He was convicted of violating the Mann Act , which made it a crime to transport women over state lines for the purposes of sex aka prostitution. I first read about his case back as an undergrad eons ago, courtesy of a very enlightened professor. My current students compare his views on Civil Rights to Dubois and Malcolm, and Jackie Robinson to MLK and Booker T, A few have even written essays on Jack,
He fought and defeated a future Oscar winning actor named Victor McClaglen(part of director John Ford's stock company that included John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara). He was not allowed to board the Titanic on her fateful maiden voyage. He was a ladie's man and made no bones about it.
Great big set of balls. A great man, for all his flaws. And a cautionary tale: he let his anger kill him, driving while angry (and crashing) after being turned away from a "whites only" dining facility.
Here are the Youtube threads:One is the Miles Davis doc and the other is either another doc or Ken Burns' doc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWHpEUeIQzs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pys2u74K4s
