Dear Representative:

I am writing to ask you to sign on as a cosponsor to H.CON.RES. 24, expressing the sense of Congress that the President should grant a posthumous pardon to John Arthur "Jack" Johnson.

As the first African American heavyweight champion of the world, Johnson had earned the respect of fighters and fans alike for his courage and determination both in and outside the ring.  Unfortunately, during the height of Johnson’s career he was convicted under the Mann Act for transporting a white woman—his wife—across state lines in 1913. Although the arbitrary nature of his conviction is well documented in history, it has served to push his legacy to near obscurity.

Certain sins of our nation’s racially divisive past, such as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are terminal events and provide no practicable course for remedy.  Others, such as the conviction of Jack Johnson, afford us an opportunity to make amends.

I urge you to seize this opportunity.  The United States Congress should go on record urging the President of the United States to grant Jack Johnson a full pardon.  By signing on as a cosponsor of H.CON.RES. 24 you will demonstrate the progress that we have made as a people, as well as the progress that the Congress has made as an institution, repudiating a mindset and a time that deemed laws like Mann Act acceptable.

Sincerely,

James P. Hoffa
General President