Former heavyweight champion Johnson posthumously pardoned by President Trump

Jack Johnson, the first black man to win the world heavyweight title, has been posthumously pardoned for a 1913 conviction of taking his white girlfriend across state lines.

The American reigned as world champion from December 1908 to April 1915 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time.

He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after being found guilty by an all-white jury of violating the 1910 Mann Act.

The federal law made it illegal to transport across state lines “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose”.

Lucille Cameron was the woman in question and would later become the wife of Johnson, who skipped bail and spent many years in exile before returning to the US in 1920 and serving 10 months in prison.

There have been numerous calls in the past to issue a pardon for Johnson, who died on June 10, 1946, aged 68, and a full one was granted by President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Joined by actor Sylvester Stallone, former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and reigning WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, Trump said during an Oval Office ceremony: “We righted a wrong.”

He added in a clip broadcast on The White House’s official Twitter feed: “Jack Johnson was not treated fairly and we have corrected that and I’m very honoured to have done it.”