Quote:President Donald Trump sparred with longtime friend Sylvester Stallone at the White House Thursday.

Stallone was at the White House to witness the pardon the first black heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson was convicted of transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes in 1931, violating the Mann Act. The posthumous pardon was granted by Trump in the Oval Office as the president was surrounded by boxing champions and family members of Johnson.

Trump said “I am taking this very righteous step, I believe, to correct a wrong that occurred in our history, and to honor a truly legendary boxing champion, legendary athlete and a person that, when people got to know him, they really liked him and they really thought he was treated unfairly.”

In the remarks, Trump turned to Stallone to compliment him on pushing for the pardon over many years.

(05-24-2018 09:13 PM)usmbacker Wrote:  

(05-24-2018 10:01 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  Honestly curious if Jack Johnson has any living descendants, and if so, were they present for the ceremony.

(05-25-2018 05:47 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Who are the tall black gentlemen in the photo on either side of Stallone (actually he's not that tall so maybe those guys aren't as tall as I think)? Maybe they're related to Johnson?

Apparently Obama didn't want to politicize the act of presidential pardons so that's why he (and Bush before him) declined to do it. That's probably a lame excuse because I'm sure others will quickly point out some politically based pardons he did do but unless he has a beef with black men marrying white women (which I doubt since that's how he was conceived), I can't think of any other reason he didn't do it.

I've seen plenty of stories on this already. The mainstream media is not 'burying' this story.