The President鈥檚 Pardon of a Black Man Wasn鈥檛 About Justice

In the history of presidential pardons, this was a minor event. But in today鈥檚 political arena, it was large. An injustice has been undone. By President Trump.

Let鈥檚 wrap our heads around this one.

This week, Trump pardoned Jack Johnson, the late boxing champion who was convicted in a racially charged 1913 trial of transporting a woman across a state line for immoral purposes. The at the time of the incident he was arrested for. Johnson was Black (the ), the woman in question White, and the judge was future Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who has been in pro baseball.

There鈥檚 no reason that Johnson should not have been pardoned long ago, and every reason to wonder why the injustice of his conviction has stood for so long. And in this sense, it could be argued that Donald Trump has done something good.

That鈥檚 until you scratch the surface of this administration and consider the president鈥檚 motivations. We can judge his action by his past behavior: This was a 鈥渄eal,鈥� a transaction just the way he sees every other action in his lifetime: his personal life (for example, after he slept with her), his businesses, and how he conducts himself in office.

You see his transactional needs in his foreign policy maneuvers, with his obeisance to world leaders who flatter him, and, most recently, his canceling the planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, which reads more like the forlorn pining of a jilted lover (鈥減lease do not hesitate to call me or write鈥�) than a diplomatic rebuke. Even in firing former FBI director James Comey, Trump comes across like someone who thinks the other side isn鈥檛 keeping up to the 鈥渄eal鈥� that only he seems to believe undergirds all government actions. (鈥溌�,鈥� Comey reported he said.)

In pardoning Jack Johnson, we can surmise that Trump is seeking something in return from Black America. Perhaps he鈥檚 realized that his friendship with Kanye West from people of color. In his eyes, his actions necessarily must translate into Black political support. 鈥淟ook what I鈥檓 doing for you,鈥� he seems to be saying. 鈥淣ow let鈥檚 talk about what you鈥檙e going to do for me.鈥�

I wouldn鈥檛 presume to speak for all Black Americans, but I find it unlikely this action will get him what he wants.

Many pardons are controversial.

For one, unless you follow boxing, Jack Johnson isn鈥檛 exactly a household name. If he really wanted the goodwill of Black America, he could pardon the right now due to convictions corrupted by racism. He could intervene to . Or, he could recognize that it is , not the NFL owners, who exemplify patriotism.

What is more, Trump鈥檚 other notable pardon was former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who鈥檇 been convicted for refusing to abide by federal court orders to stop racially discriminatory policing.

The differences are pretty clear: Johnson was forced to live in exile after his conviction, and when he returned to the U.S., served prison time. Arpaio had yet to serve a single day of his sentence, and he鈥檚 now running for U.S. senator in Arizona. Considering the messages a pardon sends, Johnson鈥檚 had relatively minor implications, while Arpaio鈥檚 was a proclamation shouted from the rooftops directly at Trump鈥檚 far-right base. And more to the point, Arpaio鈥檚 pardoning also was transactional鈥攊t bought Trump credibility with the most extremist right-wingers .

He sent the same dog-whistle message to the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, (鈥溾€�) and is doing so again with .

Many pardons are controversial.

An injustice has been undone.

Republicans were so worked up when Bill Clinton pardoned a campaign donor, financier Marc Rich, that to find out how to overturn it. George H.W. Bush caused a stir when he pardoned six members of Ronald Reagan鈥檚 administration, , caught up in the Iran-Contra affair. And, of course, Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon.

There鈥檚 a as to the limits of presidential pardoning power, whether it鈥檚 absolute or just nearly so.

In April (so long ago in Trump Time), , an aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney convicted of disclosing the identity of a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to take political revenge on her husband. The message with Libby鈥檚 pardon was clear, coming from a president whose campaign and administration is right now the subject of multiple investigations: Take care of me, and I will take care of you. That鈥檚 the deal.

So we can look at the pardon of Jack Johnson the way we look at other people that Trump has pardoned. For Johnson, who died in 1946, justice has come late, from the hands of a president who by any reasonable interpretation was not doing so in the name of justice or fairness.

But there it is anyway. An injustice has been undone.

Much as Trump鈥檚 bungling in North Korea nonetheless resulted in getting , in the case of Jack Johnson, Trump seems to have accidently done the right thing鈥攚hatever his reasons. That鈥檚 something I think we can accept.

Chris Winters is a senior editor at YES!, where he specializes in covering democracy and the economy. Chris has been a journalist for more than 20 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in the Seattle area. He鈥檚 covered everything from city council meetings to natural disasters, local to national news, and won numerous awards for his work. He is based in Seattle, and speaks English and Hungarian.

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