"Jack Johnson: "They Said This Ship Don't Haul No Coal!"" by Marion / LJWorld.com

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Jack Johnson: “They Said This Ship Don't Haul No Coal!”

No one is really certain whether or not Jack Johnson was refused passage on the Titanic but it sure made a good song!

Why has President Barack Hussein Obama not signed this pardon?

Spearheaded by Senator John McCain, the pardon reccomendation was overwhelmingly approved by Congress.

Jack Johnson beat the best that there was but had a problem.........he was black.

http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/7058/congress-passes-jack-johnson-resolution/

"Jul 30, 2009

Congress Passes Jack Johnson Resolution

by Aaron Tallent

Congress has approved a resolution urging President Barack Obama to grant a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson for his 1913 conviction on the Mann Act. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the resolution, which was first introduced in Congress in 2004, by voice vote. The Senate approved the legislation on June 24.

“I’m pleased the House has joined the Senate in passing a resolution to express the sense of Congress that Jack Johnson, the best heavyweight fighter of his era, should receive a posthumous pardon for being convicted of violating the Mann Act in 1913,” said Senator John McCain [R-AZ], the lead sponsor of the Senate resolution.

The Mann Act (otherwise known as the White Slave Traffic Act) was established in 1910 and prohibited transporting women across state lines “for the purpose of debauchery or for any other immoral purposes.” In 1912, federal prosecutors attempted to prosecute Johnson for his relationship with Lucille Cameron, whose mother had accused the champion of abducting her daughter. Those charges were nullified when Johnson and Cameron married. The federal government did, however, convict Johnson of violating the Mann Act with Belle Schreiber, a prostitute who Johnson had sometimes traveled with and introduced as his wife."

CNN reported:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/22/jack.johnson.pardon/index.html?iref=newssearch

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To this day, Linda Haywood recalls the shame she once felt for her great-uncle.

"I could see from the expression on my mother's face that it pained her to tell me about him," she recalled, "but it wasn't just her. The shame was there for all the members of my family."

Haywood's great-uncle, Jack Johnson, shocked the nation in 1908 by becoming the first African-American world heavyweight champion. Yet the boxer was arrested not long afterward for taking a white woman across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

That case fell apart and the woman later became his wife, but then investigators charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier. An all-white jury's decision to convict him in that case has come to be widely viewed as a symbol of racial injustice."

"Johnson had already married two white women — the second, a 19-year-old hooker — at a time when blacks were hung by lynch mobs for a mere glance at a white woman. The surprising testimony of a jilted lover and former prostitute resulted in his being handed a one-year jail sentence by an all-white jury in 1913, despite the fact that his alleged actions occurred prior to the Mann Act’s creation."

Can anyone say, "Ex Post Facto"?

Jack Johnson's popularity at the time, in spite of his blackness was incredible:

Jack Johnson bought the supercars of the time, which cost more than most people made in ten years and the white folks sure didn't like that:

Jack Johnson arriving in New York at the wheel of HIS 90 horsepower Thomas Flyer:

That buggy which was little more than a seat on a frame with a HUGE engine, set Jack Johnson back around $6000.00 in early 1900s dollars, the equivalent of around $145,000.00 today.

The white racists of the time thought that there was NO WAY one'o THEM should have that kind of money!

Jack Johnson dressed VERY well as was reagrded as something of a fashion rake in his time:

Jack Johnson left the United States for Europe after the indictment and conviction and finally returned in 1920 to serve a year in jail for sleeping with his wife.

In later years, Jack Johsnon engaged in boxing promotion, a ton of philanthropy and in 1920 bought the old Douglas Casino and opened The Club De Luxe, which he sold in 1923.

The new owner re-named the place The Cotton Club.

Jack Johnson bought more clothes than he could wear, more houses than he could live in and more cars than he could drive, including one similar to this; a McFarlan,a spceial order, hand built car with the largest engine ever put into a "production" American car; over 799 cubic inches, which cost the 1925 equivalent of nearly a million dollars:

In short, Johnson enraged most of the white population of the USA for over twenty years.

Jack Johnson was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1946 while driving yet another car one'o THEM wasn't supposed to own; a V-12 Lincoln Zephyr like this one:

To President Barack Hussein Obama:

You can award the Medal of Freedom to Desmond Tutu but even after a near unanimous Congressional resolution you cannot sign a pardon for one of the greatest AMERICAN sportsmen who has ever lived you allow the resolution to wait in the wings?

It only takes a stroke of the pen and the resolution is waiting on your desk..

There was once a Great White Hope; the white boxer who could take the Title from Jack Johnson and they finally found him.

Where is the HOPE AND CHANGE for the revered memory of Jack Johnson?

And now, let's all do The Eagle Rock for Jack Johnson!

Part One:

Part Two:

By Marion Lynn

August 12, 2009

Marion

Discussion

LJWorld.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.

12 August 2009
at 9:32 p.m.

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artichokeheart (Anonymous) says…

I was just involved in a conversation a few days ago about the Mann act about a woman who was eventually put to death ( Barbara Graham). One of her three convictions was for the Mann act.

I am assuming this current blog has something to do with your series on racism. But the Mann act was applied to everyone not just people of color. It was a way for the police to get the upper hand with those they knew were commiting repeated crimes and too it was a way to control the morals of the public as a whole.

Obama's failure to sign off on this may very well be a statement that he is not going to favor Jack Johnson or anyone else simply because he was or they are black.

There seems to be alot of focus on race since Obama took office. In a way I suppose that is good but I also think if people spend so much time watching every move Obama makes as it is related to race more important aspects of pulling this country out of the hole are being ignored.

There is no doubt in my mind this country is still stuck in a time warp on racial equality. The only way to halt such indiffrence is to lead by example. I'm not sure what good a pardon would so for Jack Johnson now though. No matter what is done now it cannot change the way the application of the Mann act altered his life.
12 August 2009
at 10:05 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Arti, I would disagree with you on this one.

I think Barack Hussein Obama's hesitation on this matter is becasue he doesn't want to annoy white people; in effect, a “racist” (in)action on the part of The President of The United States..
13 August 2009
at 9:05 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Barack Hussein Obama has still not signed the pardon.
13 August 2009
at 10:37 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

I notice that LJW user “beatrice” is attacking this blog as “race-baiting” but doing it on different and unrelated thread.

Not nice and cowardly.
14 August 2009
at 5:22 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Not gonna be doin' the Eagle Rock today.

No signature yet.
18 August 2009
at 11:49 a.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Hmmmm.

Evidently America's first Black president sees no political gain in finally signing a pardon for one of America's most grossly wronged Black men.

No surprise here.
20 August 2009
at 7:37 p.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Barack Hussein Obama hates Jack Johnson, I guess.

23 August 2009
at 11:31 a.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Nothing from Barack Hussein Obama yet. I suppose that he's too busy sending health care spam.
28 August 2009
at 12:22 a.m.

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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

Barack Hussein Obama is still to busy to right this wrong.