At Sylvester Stallone's urging, Trump weighs 'full pardon' for boxer Jack Johnson

[TomSea]

At Sylvester Stallone's urging, Trump weighs 'full pardon' for boxer Jack Johnson

President Trump Saturday said that he is considering a “full pardon” for boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, after being urged to do so by “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone.

Trump said that Stallone had called him and told him about Johnson, and that he is now considering a posthumous pardon. Stallone is a Trump supporter and attended his New Years' Eve Party in 2016, according to The Associated Press.

“[Johnson's] trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial,” Trump tweeted. “Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!”

Read more at: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/21/at-sylvester-stallones-urging-trump-weighs-full-pardon-for-boxer-jack-johnson.html

I enjoyed the movie.

[goatprairie]

What has always disturbed me was that America allowed a black man to be the heavyweight champion of the world fighting against white fighters in the early 1900s but didn't integrate major league baseball until almost mid-century.
I read an interesting article some years ago that in 1938 when interviewed close to 80% of major league ballplayers said they  didn't mind blacks playing in the majors.
It took almost ten more years before that actually happened.

[guitar4jesus]

What has always disturbed me was that America allowed a black man to be the heavyweight champion of the world fighting against white fighters in the early 1900s but didn't integrate major league baseball until almost mid-century.
I read an interesting article some years ago that in 1938 when interviewed close to 80% of major league ballplayers said they  didn't mind blacks playing in the majors.
It took almost ten more years before that actually happened.

What makes it more outlandish is that there were no teams in the South unless you count St. Louis as "Southern."  It was mainly Northeast and Midwest cities that had teams.

[goatprairie]

What makes it more outlandish is that there were no teams in the South unless you count St. Louis as "Southern."  It was mainly Northeast and Midwest cities that had teams.

There were quite a few southern ballplayers in the majors...they were probably most of the 20% who didn't want to play with blacks.
In 1962 the state of Mississippi still had laws against whites playing with blacks. When Mississippi St. qualifed for the NCAA basketball tournament that year the coach, Babe McCarthy, had to sneak the team out of the state to play.
The thing is when Jackie Robinson was going to play in the majors a number of southern ballplayers (Dixie Walker and some others) protested  that they were upset about that.  They threatened to hold out.
The commissioner, Happy Chandler, told them in no uncertain terms that if they held out, they'd be banned from baseball. The protests stopped.  Happy Chandler was a Southerner.
I think most Americans realized it was the right thing to do. Too bad it didn't happen a lot sooner.