Trump grants posthumous pardon to former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump pardons late boxing champ Jack Johnson President Trump granted a posthumous pardon to boxing's first black heavyweight champion more than 100 years after what many claim was a racially motivated injustice. Trump was joined by Sylvester Stallone and world boxing champ Deontay Wilder. (May 24)

WASHINGTON – President Trump granted a rare and historic posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson 72 years after his death Thursday, clearing the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion of racially motivated charges resulting from his relationships with white women in 1912.

Advocates for Johnson — including boxers, historians, academics and senators — pushed for a pardon for 14 years through the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies.

A phone call from actor Sylvester Stallone to Trump helped make it finally happen. "He was treated so unfairly, his prime was taken away, but somehow he still managed to persevere and kept a smile on his face, and he's truly an inspirational character," Stallone said in a surprise Oval Office ceremony Thursday.

Stallone, best known for his portrayal of the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa, stood among real-life heavyweights, including former champion Lennox Lewis and current champion Deontay Wilder.

Johnson's is the third posthumous pardon granted in the history of the presidency.

"I am taking this very righteous step, I believe, to correct a wrong that happened in our history," Trump said. "It’s about time.”

More: A Trump pardon for boxer Jack Johnson is just the third posthumous pardon in history

Jack Johnson's descendant reflects on his legacy President Donald Trump on Thursday granted a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, more than 100 years after what many see as his racially-charged conviction. Johnson's great-great niece reflected on his legacy. (May 24)

Alongside Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, Johnson is in the pantheon of the greatest boxers, breaking the sport's color barrier by pressing champion Tommy Burns until he agreed to face the challenger in Australia in 1908.

His title defense in 1910 against former champion Jim Jeffries sparked racial unrest that resulted in deaths around the country — and led to the search for the "Great White Hope" to reclaim the title.

Adding to the racial tensions, Johnson openly dated white women — and married three of them. The mother of Lucille Cameron, his second wife, accused Johnson of abducting Cameron, which led to federal charges in Chicago.

Those fell through when Cameron refused to press charges, but Johnson was then convicted of sexual debauchery charges against an alleged prostitute, Belle Schreiber.

He was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which passed Congress two years earlier to combat human trafficking but was never intended to criminalize consensual relationships.

Johnson slipped out of the country before being sentenced. He spent seven years in exile in Canada, Europe and Mexico during World War I before returning to serve his year-long sentence at Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

While banished from the USA, Johnson lost his heavyweight title to Jess Willard in Cuba. Because of his federal conviction, he was denied licenses to fight in many states and ended his career as a vaudeville performer and coach before dying in an automobile accident in 1946.

More: After pardoning political allies, Trump quietly denies clemency for 180 others