A Pardon Arrives 105 Years Too Late

Donald Trump corrected a misuse of justice when he issued a posthumous presidential pardon to Jack Johnson on May 24, 2018. But his pardon of Jack Johnson, which came 105 years too late, is not enough to address the scourge of racially motivated policing, or the entanglements of white supremacy and sexual regulation.

Over a century ago, in May 1913, an Illinois jury found the world-famous heavyweight champion guilty of violating the White Slave Traffic Act, popularly known as the Mann Act. Responding to public outcry against the prevalence of prostitution and stories of sexual slavery, Congress, “Private use or public exploitation are both immoral, both are denounced by the state laws and moral sentiment, and they differ only in the degree of immorality.” Jack Johnson provided a tantalizing opportunity to test the relatively new law and, in the process, take down a defiant black man.