McCain Seeks To Posthumously Pardon That OTHER One

By J.W.H.Page

These days in American culture, it’s hard to know how the gentry will act. We are either whitewashing our guilt away with amendments and Congressional declarations, or genuinely coming to terms with the violent history of our ancestors. However, as we pat ourselves on the back for voting black and disrupting the status quo, let us not forget our baggage, which is still grossly over weight in advance of our international kumbaya flight to freedom.

Arizona Senator John McCain will seek to posthumously pardon Jack Johnson, the baddest shut-your-mouth that ever walked the earth, before congress, along with Representative Peter King of New York, filmmaker Ken Burns and Johnson's great niece, Linda Haywood. Burns, who loves jazz, baseball and black folk made it plain in stating, “when we couldn't beat him in the ring, the white power establishment decided to beat him in the courts.” Well put, Kenneth.

For those who don’t know (and think that the other namesake, the current pop singer, is not only pardoned, but dead) the Jack Johnson being discussed here was the first black heavyweight champion, naturally making him hated among many white Americans. During a time of “race riots” and resentment towards black success after the turn of the 20th Century, the government trumped up charges against Johnson under the Mann Act, which prevented one from taking a woman across state lines to do naughty things. It just so happens the woman Johnson escorted was white, leaving white heads spinning and black heads shaking at the gross act of gumption on the part of the fighter. Johnson fled the country and eventually returned to serve his time despite the lunacy of the charge.

Upon hearing the news I thought this was an April Fools joke yesterday. Funny, original, out of the blue, yet somewhat timely, it was the news from home that I was certain was used to make fools of us all. While each of those tenets remains true, this move on the part of the geriatric senator who voted against the MLK holiday is solid truth. The fact that the statesman who lost to that one is pushing for a pardon of the former heavyweight makes one imagine that he’d fallen, hit his head and couldn’t get up; or that he had one too many Wild Turkeys a few nights ago and got a bout of Christmas Carol syndrome. But McCain has gone the way of many contemporary white American leaders in addressing American bigotry and atoning for our collective sins. Whatever the motivation, it is always delicious when our leaders come to their senses, reach back in their goody bag of hatred and attempt to redeem our historic atrocities from the American community songbook.