A federal police force exit in 1910 , first design to tackle the supposed terror of " white slavery " that threatened the moral basis of a rapidly exchange America , is back in the news again . And , of course , Donald Trump is in the eye of it all .
The Mann Act has been used in many ways over the more than a C that it ’s been on the Holy Scripture . Lately , some of those way of life have been legitimate . But the law also has been abused at times by zealous prosecutors and an overreaching government . The most nefarious example of that came in 1913 , when heavyweight box friend Jack Johnson was charged with , and eventually witness guilty of , violating the law .
The statute law was craft as an anti - prostitution , interstate Department of Commerce law that made it illegal to cross state lines with woman and girls " for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery , or for any other immoral use . " It was patronise by Illinois congressman James Robert Mann at a time when the United States was wrestle with an unprecedented inflow ofimmigrants — mostly from Europe — and a wave of migration from rural arena into growing , bustling , job - destitute cities .
Many legislator ( you may read that as " old white piece " ) feared that those factor — the immigration , the migration , foreigners mixing with established Americans in vainglorious cities — would endanger new white women move away from their rural home . These women and girls could be forced , it was thought , into harlotry or other illegal acts . They could be shipped to other big cities and never heard from again . The scourge of " white slavery " was support .
Seduced Into Prostitution?
" It was a widespread worry . I think people recall that young girls were act from the countryside into the city and encountering risky hoi polloi and being seduced into whoredom . And that did happen , " saysJane Dailey , writer of " The Age of Jim Crow : A Norton Documentary History , " and a professor at the University of Chicago . " [ But ] it was more of what historians would call a ' moral terror . ' Worrying about something that actually is n’t a big trouble .
" When people interest about that , that narrate you something about what they ’re guess , what their aroused state is . "
Into that milieu came Johnson , a brash , showboating son of slaves who contend his means into the public awareness as the first African - American heavyweight virtuoso . In 1910 , in a play to reassert white mastery in the realm ofboxing , former world heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries ( aka the Great White Hope ) — who had quit the athletics years earlier because he did n’t want to face Johnson — came out of retreat for what was nickname as the " Fight of the Century . "
In front of a crowd of 20,000 in Reno , Nevada , Johnson bat Jeffries , punching him to the canvas tent three metre in the 15th troll — the first clock time Jeffries had ever been knocked down — to win his title .
Johnson ’s triumph sparked race riot throughout the commonwealth and it was , many conceive , implemental in his eventual criminal prosecution under the Mann Act .
" There is a racial dimension to this law , and it ’s really important to recognise that , " say Jessica Pilley , a history professor at Texas State and source of " Policing Sexuality : The Mann Act and the devising of the FBI . " " In the hand of congressmen , what they ’re really suppose [ in 1910 ] is that they are protecting what one congressman call the … ' daughter of America . ' So they are foresee this as a jurisprudence that is going to protect aboriginal - expect white girls , not so much needs immigrant girl . "
Nailing Jack Johnson
The new undisputed world heavyweight champion had not only beaten " The Great White Hope , " he survive in a way of life that infuriate much of lily-white America . Johnson sport an ever - present smile with gold caps on his teeth and a not - so - secret living that included very public displays of his grow riches . He also was marry twice , both times to white woman . It was an amour witha Chicago prostitute — another white woman — that finally give natural law enforcement officials a chance to nail the champ .
Under the Mann Act ’s wispy " other immoral use " language , prosecutors bring charges against Johnson for drive an single white fair sex across state lines . An all - bloodless panel take less than two hr to convict .
Johnson skip bond and traveled with his married woman through Europe and South America for twelvemonth before finally giving himself up to assurance in 1920 . He drop about a year at thefederal penitentiaryin Leavenworth , Kansas .
Since its passage , the Mann Act also was also used to pursue silent movie wiz Charlie Chaplin regarding a authorship suit ( he was acquitted ) ; singer Chuck Berry for train an Apache girl across state lines ( convict ) ; and Frank Lloyd Wright for strike his lover and her daughter from Minnesota to Wisconsin ( convict ) ; many other manpower also were convicted for premarital and extramarital intimate activity . The act has been amended since then and now is employed , mainly , as a tool to stop sex trafficking .
The Mann Act Today
" As there has been a cooperative concern about sexual urge trafficking that has really emerged in the last 18 years , and more and more people are aware that gender trafficking could be a problem , it ’s like the Mann Act has been rediscover , " Pilley says . " It ’s always been on the book , but it had n’t really been being used until about 10 years ago , [ when ] prosecuting attorneys and U.S. Attorney offices realise that they have this very , very powerful tool that they can use against people who are taking sex workers across land lines . "
In 2004 , Ken Burns ' documentary film cinema " Unforgivable Blackness : The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson , " brought the first material push for a presidential pardon for Johnson , who died in 1946 . President George W. Bush plough it down . Abipartisan resolutionfrom Senators John McCain ( R - Arizona ) and Harry Reid ( D - Nevada ) in 2015 called on President Barack Obama to grant a posthumous free pardon . Obama turn down to do so .
And now , after being prompt by another former boxer , of sorts — Sylvester Stallone — President Trump decided on May 24 , 2018 toposthumously pardon Johnson . " Today I ’ve issued an executive grant of clemency , a full pardon , posthumously , to John Arthur ' Jack ' Johnson … The first African - American heavyweight whizz of the world , a truly not bad fighter . Had a tough life,“Trump said . In April Trump twitch that he was study it .
" unspoiled news . Absolutely effective newsworthiness . [ Johnson ] was completely trace for no rationality other than the fact that he was African - American and heavyweight wizard of the earthly concern , " Dailey say . " I do n’t unremarkably fit with Donald Trump , but I ’m with him on this one . "
enjoin Pilley : " Jack Johnson should be pardoned — 100 per centum . He should have been pardoned a farsighted time ago . Everything about the style they used the Mann Act against that homo was unnatural . It was a very , very clear case of racial policing . It was a way to punish one of the best black athlete in America for being the best black athlete in America , and also having a white wife . "
