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"I
believe Jack Johnson is a worthy person to receive a pardon, to
correct a wrong in our history," Trump said.
In a case that came to symbolize racial injustice, Johnson was
arrested in 1912 with Lucille Cameron, who later became his
wife, for violating the Mann Act. The law was passed two years
earlier and made it a crime to take a woman across state lines
for immoral purposes.
Johnson died in 1946.
In signing the pardon, the president cited “tremendous racial
tension” during the time Johnson was champion. "He really
represented something that was both very beautiful and very
terrible at the same time," Trump said.
Actor Sylvester Stallone, famous as the star of the "Rocky"
boxing-movie franchise, and former world heavyweight boxing
champion Lennox Lewis flanked Trump for the pardon in the Oval
Office. In April, Trump tweeted that he was considering the
pardon after talking to Stallone.
Earlier on Thursday, Stallone posted a photo of himself at the
White House on Instagram with the caption "Waiting for the
moment to go into the oval office for the pardon..."
In the Oval Office, Trump said of Stallone: "I love his movies."
"This has been a long time coming," Stallone said, adding that
Johnson served as the inspiration for the character of Apollo
Creed in the Rocky movies.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and James Oliphant; writing by Lisa
Lambert; editing by Cynthia Osterman and Tom Brown)
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