Trump grants posthumous pardon to former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson with Sylvester Stallone and boxers in Oval Office. President Trump granted a rare and historic posthumous pardon Thursday to Jack Johnson 72 years after his death, clearing the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion of racially motivated charges resulting from his relationships with white women in 1912. Actor Sylvester Stallone, star of the Rocky movies, urged Trump to pardon Johnson. Other boxers attended the Oval Office ceremony. Ref. USAToday.