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Campaign steps up for Obama to pardon first black heavyweight champion... who was jailed for sleeping with white women

He was the world’s first black heavyweight champion 100 years before Barack Obama became America’s first black president.

But more than a century on, boxer Jack Johnson's family say there is still a ‘stigma’ hanging over him after his relationship with a white woman landed him in prison.

Lawmakers are pushing a posthumous presidential pardon campaign for the boxer, whose flamboyant lifestyle and romantic ties with white women flamed racial tension.

Authorities targeted his relationship with wife Lucille Cameron, but after she refused to co-operate they got another white witness, Belle Schreiber, to testify against him....
Read entire article at Daily Mail (UK)