Free Republic

President Donald Trump has achieved more concrete progress for blacks, gays, and Jews than any other American president.That claim is sure to be disputed, if not mocked, by those for whom grievance and identity politics are a profession or a psychological crutch.Yet it remains true — and was thrown into sharp relief this week, as the Jussie Smollett case turned from one of the most horrific attacks in recent memory to the worst hate crime hoax in history.There are two reasons the media, Hollywood, and the Democratic political elite believed Smollett’s claims.First, he belongs to several victim categories: black, gay,...

Days after the presidential pardon of Jack Johnson, Sylvester Stallone has announced plans for a biopic on the first African-American heavyweight champion. Stallone said Wednesday that his newly launched Balboa Productions will start with a film about Johnson. On Thursday, Stallone stood next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office as he signed a rare posthumous pardon to Johnson, who served 10 months in prison in what Trump called "a racially-motivated injustice."

President Trump Posthumously Pardons Boxer Jack Johnson…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a pardon for the late boxer Jack Johnson, an African-American convicted a century ago for the crime of taking a woman across state lines, saying the move corrected a wrong in American history. The heavyweight champion was arrested in 1912 with Lucille Cameron, a white woman who would later become his wife, for violating the Mann Act, a law that had passed two years earlier in response to a morality campaign.

The Nation's sports editor Dave Zirin is livid that the man who occupies the White House, courtesy of the slave-holders who devised the electoral college, is getting the credit for pardoning Jack Johnson. The African-American Johnson was an early 20th century boxing champion who also served prison time for a criminal charge. Johnson (shown in photograph) was the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion, from 1908-1915, the era of Jim Crow. He had dated and married white women, and in 1912, he was arrested for violating the Mann Act forbidding a person from transporting a woman across state lines for...

<p>President Trump said Saturday he’s considering a posthumous pardon for boxer Jack Johnson at the urging of actor Sylvester Stallone.</p> <p>“Sylvester Stallone called me with the story of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. His trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial,” Trump tweeted.</p>

Congressional backers of a pardon for Jack Johnson, the world's first black heavyweight champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago for his romantic relationships with white women, say his prosecution was racially motivated. Johnson made the same argument 90 years ago while in prison, records at the National Archives show. Now, under a black president and black attorney general, the Justice Department is against pardoning Johnson. In the last session of Congress, both houses of Congress passed a resolution urging a pardon pushed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., "to expunge a racially motivated abuse...

Former Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two felony charges involving thousands of dollars in bribes he solicited as part of a “pay-to-play” culture federal authorities say he fostered throughout his two terms in office. Johnson, who led Prince George’s from 2002 to December and was the county’s top prosecutor for eight years before that, entered his guilty plea in federal court in Greenbelt on charges of extortion and witness and evidence tampering. As part of the plea, he admitted accepting a $100,000 check from a county developer in exchange for securing federal funding...

Nine people, including three Prince George's County police officers, were arrested Monday on charges involving drugs, guns and a large-scale scheme to distribute untaxed cigarettes and alcohol, according to federal officials. Sources said the charges are connected to the recent arrest of Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson, but it is unclear exactly how the cases are related. The arrests are part of a larger investigation of corruption in Prince George's. The nine arrested Monday were taken into custody in the early morning hours during an operation that involved 150 law enforcement officers executing as many as a dozen...

Jack B. Johnson, Prince George's County's executive, was arrested on Nov. 12 as federal investigators served search warrants at the County Administration Building. His wife, Leslie Johnson, was also arrested. Each was charged with evidence tempering and destroying evidence. Just after 10:12 a.m. Friday, Leslie Johnson frantically phoned her husband, Jack B. Johnson, the Prince George's county executive. Two FBI agents were at the front door of their two-story brick colonial in Mitchellville. "Don't answer it," the county executive said, unaware that more agents were listening in. Johnson ordered his wife to find and destroy a $100,000 check from...

*snip* "Don't answer it," the county executive said, unaware that more agents were listening in. Johnson ordered his wife to find and destroy a $100,000 check from a real estate developer that was hidden in a box of liquor. "Do you want me to put it down the toilet?" Leslie Johnson asked. "Yes, flush that," the county executive said. But what about the cash? she asked - $79,600. Put it in your underwear, the county executive told his wife. She replied, "I have it in my bra" - which is where agents discovered the money after she answered the door.

Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, arrested in a corruption probe Friday, told his wife to hide tens of thousands of dollars in her underwear as federal agents arrived at his house to search for illegal payoffs from a developer, federal prosecutors have charged. Caught in an FBI sting taking a $15,000 payment from an unnamed developer Friday, Mr. Johnson later told his wife by telephone not to answer the door when two FBI agents came to their home, authorities said. The county executive, a Democrat who was previously the county's top prosecutor, then told his wife, Leslie Johnson, to...

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife were arrested at their home Friday and charged in federal court with trying to hide or destroy the proceeds from a bribe from a local developer, according to court papers and federal law enforcement authorities. Johnson and his wife, Leslie E. Johnson, were charged with evidence tampering and destruction, alteration and falsification of records. After brief hearings late Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Connolly ordered Jack Johnson to be released and placed under electronic monitoring. The judge released Leslie Johnson on her own recognizance. Both Johnsons were ordered to surrender...

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson was arrested at his home Friday morning by federal law enforcement agents, and he is tentatively scheduled to appear in court on federal charges later Friday afternoon. Johnson and his wife, Leslie E. Johnson, were taken away in handcuffs shortly before 1 p.m. Johnson, wearing a camel-colored suit and white shirt, did not address reporters' questions. Johnson, who is coming to the end of his term next month, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. Their appearances are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. The charges will be unsealed...

Lawmakers renewed a call Wednesday to pardon Jack Johnson, the Galveston native and boxing legend who was brought down outside the ring by a racially motivated conviction. Dorothy Cross, great-niece of boxing legend Jack Johnson, speaks with John McCain, R-Ariz., after the senator introduced a resolution to pardon the boxer. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., introduced a resolution in Congress urging a posthumous presidential pardon to clear Johnson's name. The lawmakers, both lifelong boxing fans, have pushed for a pardon since 2004. "We need to erase this act of racism that sent an American citizen to...

Jack Johnson, the first African-American to become world heavyweight boxing champion, overcame racism and poverty to slug his way to the top. Efforts to clear his name of a bogus conviction for transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes, however, have not been as successful. Today is the 131st anniversary of Johnson's birth in Galveston, and it comes as renewed efforts are under way in Congress to get a presidential pardon for the boxer who died 68 years ago. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., plan to introduce resolutions before Congress on Wednesday calling...

Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday tried to rally support among black Democrats in Prince George's County, while Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele campaigned with county Democratic leaders who broke ranks this week to endorse him. Mr. Cardin appeared with Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and about 30 other lawmakers in Hyattsville, aiming to keep a diminishing lead in the polls. In his first public show of support for Mr. Cardin, Mr. Johnson ... But the rally turned sour later. State Sen. Nathaniel Exum, Prince George's Democrat, berated Mr. Cardin for excluding him and other local delegates from speaking...

Jack Johnson was a black man who often spent his days beating up white men and his nights making love to white women. This, in the first years of the last century. So you can understand why he was a polarizing figure, why newspapers inveighed against him and the government conspired to bring him down. Of course, chances are good that you've never even heard of John Arthur Johnson. As filmmaker Ken Burns pointed out to me in a telephone interview, we are a nation of great historical illiteracy. Ask most people what they know about even so towering a...

Jack Arthur Johnson, 82, who joined the famous Tuskegee Airmen in the winter of 1941, died Nov. 4, after a 12-year-battle with prostate cancer. Mr. Johnson made his first solo flight at age 18 in 1938. During World War II, he was a flight instructor recruited to train men the basics of flying. His comrades recruited instructors from all over the country, and he was one of those selected to go to Tuskegee. The name Tuskegee Airmen was given to the first group of black men to become pilots, bombardiers, navigators and support personnel during World War II, at a...