[...] Today, I am filing a petition with the Department of Justice, prepared by the law firm Proskauer Rose, which documents in detail that the decision to indict Johnson — and, in the end, the conviction itself — was racially motivated. The Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson includes prominent Americans from politics, including Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy, as well as boxers Vernon Forrest, Sugar Ray Leonard and Bernard Hopkins.
A presidential pardon will not change history. Certainly it will not make life easier for Jack Johnson, who died in 1946. But as McCain has explained, "pardoning Jack Johnson will serve as a historic testament of America's resolve to live up to its noble ideals of justice and equality."
| Go back for the rest of documentarian Ken Burns' Los Angeles Times commentary "Mr. President, Pardon Jack Johnson"
posted in articles on July 13, 2004 5:34 AM | t (0)
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