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Originally published as:

New York Times. “Will Extradite Johnson.” New York Times 17 February 1915: 8.

Editors' notes

This document is presented as part of the history of Thomas's dismissal from the University of Chicago. Although no such charge was ever brought against Thomas, violations of the Mann act are routinely mentioned in commentaries on the event. The basis of that linkage has always been statements made by Federal District Attorney Clyne to the Chicago press at the time.

We have included this brief notice from the New York Times as evidence of Clyne's affection for Mann act investigations and prosecutions. Jack Johnson, the American champion boxer, had become the target of Clyne's moral entrepreneurship because of his miscegenation — crossing the race boundaries of his time. Clyne used laws intended to control prostitution to bring Johnson into line. It should surprise no one that when the wife of a soldier serving in Europe during a time of war was caught in a double adultery, he would be similarly savage in pursuit of the scandal.

A fictionalized version of the Johnson story is preserved on film as The Great White Hope and a more detailed presentation of the Johnson's career is recounted in Ken Burns' documentary Unforgivable Blackness.

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New York Times

WILL EXTRADITE JOHNSON
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Federal Attorney Says He Will Jail Negro Pugilist.
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CHICAGO, Feb. 16. — Jack Johnson, the negro pugilist, who fled to Europe after being sentenced to a year in the Federal Penitentiary for violation of the Mann act, will be extradited and returned to Chicago on a charge of conspiracy, according to a statement today by Charles F. Clyne, United States District Attorney.

The recent Supreme Court decision in a white slave case, holding that a conspiracy may be entered into to violate the act, was cited by Mr. Clyne as authority for the statement.

"The offense for which Johnson was tried," District Attorney Clyne said, "is not extraditable, but conspiracy to violate the United States law is. If the pugilist is not returned through any of our various plans, either before or after his boxing match at Juarez, Mexico, he will be indicted for conspiracy, arrested wherever he may be, and brought back.

"He may elude us and escape to Europe again, but, his freedom will be short-lived."

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