Mike Tyson Joins Campaign For Posthumous Pardon For Former World Boxing Champion Jack Johnson, Who Was A Victim Of The Jim Crow Laws

Mike Tyson joined calls for the pardon of former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. Johnson's career was brought to a crashing halt in 1913, when he became a victim of Jim Crow justice.

Johnson died in 1946 due to a car crash.

In 2008, President George W. Bush tried to get posthumous presidential pardon for Johnson. That effort is continued today by President Obama. Tyson is trying to help the cause with name.

This campaign also includes Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the US Senate, and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain - for Johnson's conviction to be overturned. The former boxer, who was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world between 1987 and 1990, has launched a petition on change.org that appeals to President Obama to use his executive powers to pardon Johnson.

"Let's show President Obama and the White House that we too care about Jack Johnson's legacy," the petition says.

On October 18, 1912, Johnson was arrested on the grounds that his relationship with Lucille Cameron violated the Mann Act against "transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes" due to her being an alleged prostitute and due to Johnson being black. That case eventually dropped until another alleged prostitute named Belle Schreiber testified against the former champ. He was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to over a year in prison.

Johnson fled the country and returned in 1920 and surrendered himself to authorities.

"A man as great as my uncle, who was known all over the world, who was the best at his craft, who had money and prestige, to have been thrown in jail only because he fell in love with someone who didn't have the same skin color as him - that made everybody ashamed," Linda Haywood, niece of Johnson said in a statement. "It's paramount to me that he is pardoned now because I want my children to move forward and have the same amount of pride about him as I do."