Posthumous pardon for boxing legend

Donald Trump yesterday granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson’s name more than 100 years after he was convicted on what many see as a racially motivated charge.

“It’s my honour to do it. It’s about time,” Mr Trump said during an Oval Office ceremony, where he was joined by boxer Lennox Lewis and actor Sylvester Stallone, who has drawn awareness to Johnson’s cause.

Mr Trump said Johnson had served 10 months in prison and described his decision as an effort “to correct a wrong in our history”.

“He represented something that was both very beautiful and very terrible at the same time,” Mr Trump said.

Johnson was convicted in 1913 by an all-white jury for violating the Mann Act, making it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes, for travelling with his white girlfriend. He died in 1946.

Mr Trump had said previously that Stallone had brought Johnson’s story to his attention in a phone call.