July 13, 2004

PROFESSOR DENISE MORGAN JOINS CALL
FOR POSTHUMOUS PRESIDENTIAL PARDON
FOR BOXER JACK JOHNSON

Denise Morgan, “Jack Johnson v. The American Racial Hierarchy.” Chapter in Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (A.Gordon-Reed, ed.). Oxford University Press, 2002.

Read an excerpt from Professor Morgan's Article (PDF)

Professor Denise Morgan joined with a group of political and civil rights leaders, boxing experts, and artists, including documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, in filing a petition with the United States Department of Justice on July 13 seeking a posthumous presidential pardon for Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Champion of the World. The case of Jack Johnson has been of scholarly interest to Professor Morgan for many years. In 2002, her article about the Johnson case was published as a chapter in a book, Race on Trial, edited by New York Law School colleague
Annette Gordon-Reed. 

The petition argues that Johnson's 1913 conviction under the Mann Act, a law passed three years earlier that banned the interstate transport of women for immoral purposes, unfairly punished him for a consensual relationship with a white woman. The historical event occurred during the segregationist era of Jim Crow laws.

Among those leading the petition drive are U.S. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Orrin Hatch of Utah, who said they plan to ask other senators to join in a resolution urging that Johnson be pardoned. Other supporters include Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts; Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois; boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Vernon Forrest and actor Samuel L. Jackson.

New York Law School alumna Cynara Hermes '03 is a member of the Proskauer Rose team that authored the petition to the Justice Department. In an interview with with the New York Law Journal on July 16, Ms. Hermes explains her interest in the case: "Being the daughter of immigrants, racism is nothing new to me. When you think about African American [boxing] history, you don't think of Jack Johnson, you think of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. That's sad because Jack Johnson was the first [black] heavyweight title holder." She added, "I needed to be part of this greater goal of getting [Johnson] back to his place in history."

Burns’s documentary on Johnson, titled “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson,” will air on PBS in January 2005. Professor Morgan was interviewed for the documentary.