| October 29, 2009 Boxer Jack Johnson up for posthumous pardon
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(NECN/ABC NEWS) - Long before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, there was Jack Johnson, the first black man to become heavyweight champion of the world.
Only, the toughest decision this prize fighter was ever dealt came from outside the boxing ring.
Johnson became champ in 1908, a story chronicled in the Ken Burns documentary "Unforgivable Blackness: the Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson".
Two years later, when he beat a fighter billed as "the Great White Hope," race riots broke out across the country.
Resentment of Johnson's success and flashy lifestyle grew.
The bitterness culminated in Johnson's 1913 conviction under "The Mann Act". The law was designed to prevent prostitution, but used against the fighter because he had once bought a white girlfriend a plane ticket.
Johnson fled the country after his conviction, but agreed years later to return and serve a 10-month sentence.
Now, a century later, two republican lawmakers - both boxing enthusiasts - are fighting to clear Johnson's name.
Resolutions to grant him a posthumous pardon have failed in the past, but Sen. John McCain and Congressman Peter King have finally won approval this year in both house and senate. The request now sits on Pres. Obama's desk.
The White House is not commenting on Johnson's case, citing a policy of not addressing pardon requests.
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