{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=8b27e52d-28e5-403e-8940-a3cdd29b67ef", "CONGRESS PASSES McCAIN-REID RESOLUTION URGING POSTHUMOUS PARDON FOR JACK JOHNSON", "2015-12-09", "2015", "2015-12", "Republican", "House", "AZ", "John McCain", "M000303", "www.mccain.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.  Today, the U.S. Senate delivered final passage of a resolution offered by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Harry Reid (D-NV) that calls on President Obama to posthumously pardon John Arthur Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, for his unjust conviction in 1913. Johnsons career and reputation were ruined after he was charged with transporting a white woman across state lines in violation of theMann Act. Representatives Peter King (R-NY) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) cosponsored a companion resolution that passed the House of Representatives.\r\nJack Johnson is a boxing legend and pioneer whose reputation was wrongly tarnished by a racially motivated conviction more than a century ago, said Senator McCain. Today, the United States Congress has once again spoken, calling on the President to finally take action and issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson. Its past time for President Obama to right this injustice, restore the legacy of a great American athlete, and close a shameful chapter in our nations history.\r\nAfter more than one-hundred years of injustice, the record of history must finally be corrected to restore Jack Johnsons good name, said Senator Reid. Jack Johnson was one of the greatest athletes of all time, a barrier-breaking pioneer and true champion whose reputation was tarnished by a racially motivated affront to justice. Today, Congress not only voted to restore this mans legacy, but also demonstrated the enduring power Americas national character. Today we showed we will never stop working toward righting our nations past wrongs. It is time to put this injustice behind us.\r\nAs a life-long boxing fan, Senator McCain has been introducing this resolution in the Senate urging the President to pardon Jack Johnson since 2004. The resolution was unanimously approved by both the House and Senate in the 111th Congress, the first time since 1974 that both chambers passed a concurrent resolution calling for a posthumous pardon of an individual.Additionally, the resolution passed the House in the 110th Congress and passed the Senate in the 108th and 113th Congresses.\r\nJack Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas on March 31, 1878 and in 1908, he became the first African-American World Heavyweight Boxing Champion after defeating Tommy Burns in Australia  a title Johnson held until 1915. Prompted by his success in the boxing ring and his relationship with a Caucasian woman, Jack Johnson was wrongly convicted under the Mann Act when he brought the woman he was dating across state lines. The intent of the Mann Act was to prevent human trafficking of women for the purpose of prostitution. However, this racially-motivated 1913 conviction imprisoned Jack Johnson for a year. The conviction ruined his career and destroyed his reputation.\r\nAmerican Presidents have issued posthumous pardons in the past. In 1999, President Clinton pardoned Henry O. Flipper, the first African-American to graduate from West Point and first African-American officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10thCavalry Regiment during the Civil War, who was later dismissed from the Army for racially charged allegations. In 2008, President Bush pardoned Charles Winters, an American volunteer in the Arab-Israeli War who was convicted of violating the U.S. Neutrality Acts in 1949 after he helped to transfer two B-17 Flying Fortresses in an effort to aid the Jewish peoples effort to establish the state of Israel.\r\nThe text of the resolution ishere.\r\nRead William Rhodens recent column in The New York Times calling for a posthumous pardon of Jack Johnson here.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=8b27e52d-28e5-403e-8940-a3cdd29b67ef"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 5.775128956884146, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}