VIA: KWTX.com
The U.S. Justice Department isn’t supporting a bid to pardon Jack Johnson, the Galveston, Texas native and black heavyweight boxing champion who was sent to federal prison nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.
The department’s pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, told Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., in a letter that the Justice Department’s general policy is not to process posthumous pardon requests.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Thursday.
Rodgers wrote that the department’s resources for pardon requests are best used on behalf of people “who can truly benefit” from them.
King sponsored a congressional resolution that urges President Barack Obama to pardon Johnson.
Rodgers noted that Mr. Obama still has the authority to pardon whomever he wishes.
A bill asking then President George W. Bush to pardon Johnson passed in the U.S. House in 2008, but the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, failed.
Jackson was born in Galveston on March 31, 1878.
He died on June 10, 1946 in Franklinton, N.C. of injuries he suffered in a car crash.
