The Great White Hope? Huh?

Jack Johnson

When I was 10 years old, my grandmother's church went on a bus excursion to New York City to see a play called "The Great White Hope" It was loosely based on the life of the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World, Jack Johnson. I knew nothing of Jack Johnson then and I didn't care about seeing the play but, it was a chance to get out of Philly and plus, it was going to make my grandmother (who I loved dearly) happy so, I went.

I watched the play but all I could think about initially was, this was a bald-headed black man running around with a lot of white women and getting himself into needless trouble with the white folk. I wondered in my 10 year old way, why he didn't mess with the sisters. The white folks still weren't going to like him any better but, at least they would have left him alone about that! Even as a precocious 10 year old, I could understand certain things that adults didn't seem to grasp!

A few years later, when I was about 15 years old, my cousin Linwood (who is eight years my senior) was listening to a jazz album by Miles Davis called "Jack Johnson". I suddenly remembered the play which featured James Earl Jones that I had seen with my Nana just five years earlier. I read the liner notes which talked about the man's life in a little more detail. Later, I went to the library and found two books on the man's life surprisingly enough. (This was long before the days of Wikipedia!)

Jack Johnson and I shared not only the same racial make up but the same sun sign, Aries, and his March 30th birthday was just six days after mine. The more I read about the man, the more I found that I liked him. His attitude and his habit of purposely thumbing his nose at and infuriating the racist American society of the early 20th century.

He dressed to the nines, drove fast cars, and ran with and married three white women. In the ring, he was fast and skillful and there were few who could keep up with him and none that could beat him in his prime. It wouldn't be until nearly a half-century later when Muhammad Ali arrived on the scene that a Black man would be this autonomous in American public life.

He was locked up for violating the Mann Act, which is taking a woman across state lines for immoral purposes (prostitution). What he really was locked up for was taking a white woman across state lines. Rather than serve his time, he fled America and fought in Europe. Later on, he accepted a deal and retured to the United States. It is rumored that he threw his last fight and took a dive to Jess Willard, a cowboy who didn't start boxing until he was thirty, so that he wouldn't have to serve his entire jail sentence.

In the end, Jack lost his heavyweight crown and it would be 20 years before another black man, Joe Louis, would get a shot at being the heavyweight champ. Jack Johnson had been a "disgrace to the negro race", a feat that I would duplicate myself 20 years after his death when an elementary school teacher told me that I was the same thing... a disgrace to the negro race. I didn't know whether to feel honored or not! Gee, it's not everyday that one can hope to rise to such a level in negro history so,at least I was in with good company! Me and Jack Johnson.

Of course, I'm kidding. Jack Johnson continued to box for a little while and finally retired from the ring in 1938. He raced automobiles for awhile and then, he appeared at state fairs boxing kangaroos and racing horses (and cars) on foot and other demeaning things to make money. He died in a car accident in 1946 . 63 years ago.

What I want to know is why Senator John McCain (that champion of civil rights) is "pressuring" President Obama to pardon Jack Johnson's 1912 Mann Violation conviction! Why now? The President is in the middle of trying to get health care reform in action, trying to make a decision about Afghanistan, and other important things and Senator McCain wants him to give a pardon to a man who has been dead for 63 years! I don't get it. What are these Republicans up to now?

My mother always said,"Give me my roses while I can still smell 'em." What good would a presidential pardon do Jack Johnson now? He's dead... been dead... and I don't know if he even has any living descendents who could accept the pardon for him. And, what could they do with it, if they do exist? That pardon and a token will get you a ride downtown and that's about it.

What is McCain's game? He has said that both houses of congress have approved of giving the late boxer a pardon. Well, I'm certainly glad that they can get together and agree on something! They can't pass a bill to make sure that you and I, who are very much alive and breathing, can have the same decent health care that they have but they can campaign to give a dead man a pardon that he can't use. It should have been given to him in 1912 because he could have used it then. Give me a public option now... bring home our soldiers, sailors, and airmen now. They could use it.

Priorities Gentlemen... priorities!