Black Man Who Resisted Draft Is Pardoned

President Clinton on Monday pardoned a black American who refused military service and fled overseas after his local draft board, in a racial snub, refused to call him “mister.”

Preston King, a professor at the University of Lancaster in Britain and father of British Parliament member Oona King, was granted a “full and unconditional pardon” on his draft-evasion conviction, allowing him to return to the U.S. for his brother’s funeral this week, the White House said.

“He [Clinton] took into account the entire record and all the circumstances surrounding this matter and came to the conclusion that clemency was warranted,” White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said.

Several prominent Americans had called for King’s pardon, as did the judge who presided over his case in 1961. King had refused to take an Army physical until the all-white draft board in Albany, Ga., addressed him as “mister,” as it addressed white draftees. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

King had wanted to pursue a doctorate at the London School of Economics. But his draft board ended the student deferrals that had allowed him to pursue a master’s degree at the school and stopped addressing him as mister, King has said, after learning that he was black.

King, 63, who carries an Australian passport, is a professor of political philosophy at Lancaster and has held academic posts in several other countries.