Credit where due today---John McCain is still crusading for a pardon for Jack Johnson, the legendary heavyweight champion who was convicted, and served a year in Leavenworth, for violating the Mann Act of 1910. Such a pardon is, like, decades overdue, but the Baron’s got an even better idea: Considering the racist hysteria that gave birth to that repugnant piece of legislation, how about a blanket pardon for everyone who was ever convicted under the Mann Act?
Jack Johnson, it may be recalled, was convicted in federal court of transporting a white woman across state lines “for immoral purposes” who happened to be his wife.
---Vitelius
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