Trump pardons Jack Johnson

Washington: US President Donald Trump issued a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, who was sent to prison a century ago in a racially charged case.

Trump on Thursday said Johnson, the "Galveston Giant," was the victim of what "many viewed as a racially motivated injustice."

Johnson, who held the heavyweight title from 1908-15, was convicted by an all-white jury in 1913 of taking a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes."

Johnson, whose consensual relationship with a white woman was seen then by many as taboo, fled to Europe but returned in 1920 and spent a year in prison. Johnson died in a car crash in 1946 at the age of 68.