Fire damages Texas home where boxing legend Johnson lived

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A Texas Gulf Coast home where boxing legend Jack Johnson once lived has been heavily damaged in a fire.

The blaze caused a wall to collapse in the vacant home Friday in Galveston. Fire Chief Mike Wisko told The Galveston County Daily News that the building was in the process of being renovated.

Johnson began his boxing career in Galveston, where a bronze statue of him stands in a park naming him as the Galveston Giant.

In 1908 he became the first black heavyweight world champion.

President Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Johnson last May for a 1913 conviction for violating the Mann Act by traveling with his white girlfriend. That law made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes.